Funeral  Address 


A.  A.  HODGE,  D.  D. 


\j. 


Henry  A.  Boardman,  D.  D. 


K.i 


COMMEMORATIVE    DISCOURSE 


John  DeWitt,  D.  D. 


I 


BX  9225  .B565  H62  1881 

Hodge,  Archibald  Alexander, 

1823-1886. 

Address  at  the  funeral  of 

__  thp  Rpv.  Hpnrv  Auanj^tiis 

ADDRESS 


AT   THE 


FUNERAL 


OF   THE 


Rev.  Henry  Augustus  Boardman,  D.  D. 


BY    THE 


VC 


Rev.  Prof.  A.  A.  Hodge,  D.  D., 


JUNE    21,    1880. 


PHILADELPHIA 
1881. 


-a. 


PHILADELPHIA: 

THE    CHANDLER    PRINTING    HOUSE, 

Nos.  306  &  308  Chestnut  street. 


Funeral  Address. 


THE  sorrow  which  fills  all  our  hearts  to-day  has 
not  its  ground  in  a  mere  sentiment.  We  weep 
not  merely  because  our  affections  are  wounded,  and 
the  tender  and  sacred  associations  of  the  past  abruptly 
severed,  or  simply  that  one  of  the  noble  monuments  of 
the  good  old  times  is  removed  from  its  place.  But  we 
have  all  in  various  ways  experienced  a  terrible  posi- 
tive loss.  Although  our  Father  and  Friend  had  lived 
well  beyond  the  appointed  period  of  human  life,  and 
had  completed  a  well-rounded  life-work,  he  had  never 
for  one  moment  ceased  to  be  a  positive  beneficent 
power  in  the  present,  and  we  had  fondly  hoped  that 
he  would  continue  to  be  so  in  the  near  future  also. 
No  class  of  men  in  the  entire  community  are  fulfilling 
a  more  important  function  for  the  general  good  than 
the  venerable  Fathers  in  the  beautiful  Autumn  of  their 
days,  enriched  with  all  the  wisdom  which  comes  from 
a  sanctified  experience,  armed  with  the  sources  of  in- 


FUNERAL   ADDRESS. 


fluence  which  have  accumulated  through  all  the  years 
of  a  well  spent  past,  and  transfigured  like  the  setting 
sun,  with  the  cominQf  o-lories  of  the  heavenly  world. 
This  throne  of  beneficent  power  was,  in  a  singularly 
perfect  manner,  occupied  by  our  deceased  Father  and 
Friend.      The    pre-eminent    gracefulness    which    had 
characterized  even  his  early  and  middle  life,  adorned 
his  old  age  to  an  unparalleled  degree.     Although  his 
body  was  feeble,  it  yet  bore  no  marks  of  extreme  age, 
and  although  he   lacked   the  vigor  of  his    prime,  his 
powers  of  expression,  whether  by  pen  or  speech,  had 
by  no   means  sensibly  declined,  and  his   intellect  and 
all  the  livinor  forces  of  his  soul  were  even  more  lumin- 
ous  than  ever.     He  maintained  unsevered  all  his  old 
relations  to  the  congregation,  the  Theological  Semi- 
nary, and   the   church  at  large.     In   several   of  these 
spheres  he  was  as   active,  and  was  as  busily  transact- 
ing  important  and   delicate   trusts,  and   was  as   much 
the  object  of  general  respect  and  confidence,  as  in  any 
former  period  of  his  life.     He  filled  a  very  large  and 
important  place  in  the  present,  and  it  is  no  disrespect 
to  others  to  say  that  in  no  one  of  these  trusts  is  there 
a  man  living  who  can  adequately  take  the  place  ren- 
dered vacant  by  his  death,  how  much  less  then  is  there 
any  one  who  can  take  his  place,  and   fill   as   he   filled, 
to  the  satisfaction  and  advantage  of  all,  the  whole  cir- 
cle of  trusts  which  depended  upon  him. 


FUNERAL   ADDRESS. 


We  therefore  have  reason,  this  day,  to  be  filled  with 
sorrow,  because  we  have  lost  so  much,  and  because, 
out  of  God,  our  loss  is  absolutely  irreparable. 

This  is  the  plain  matter  of  fact,  and  if  through  im- 
patience  with  pain  we  strive  to  disguise   it,  or  repre- 
sent it  to  ourselves  in  another  light,  we  shall  shut  out 
from  our  eyes  the  lesson  intended  by  the  providence, 
and  so  cut  ourselves  off  from  the  compensating  bless- 
ings  it  may  possibly  bring  to  us  in  the  end.     When 
God  smites  us  he  always  intends  that  we  shall  feel  the 
sting  of  the  blow,  and  even  the  lingering  heart-break- 
ing ache  of  the  irreparable  loss.     It  is  a  fact,  God  has 
intentionally  caused  it  to  be  a  fact,  that  this  family  has 
lost  its  Father,  and  in  all  its  future  history  his  place  will 
remain  unfilled — this  congregation  ha^  lost  the  great 
preacher  whose  long  pastorate  will  always  mark  the 
heroic  age  of  its  history — the  Presbyterian  Church  in 
Philadelphia  has  lost  its  most  illustrious  member,  its 
venerable    head    and    ornament.     The    Presbyterian 
Family  of  Churches  in  the  United  States  have  lost  their 
most  admirably  qualified  Chairman  and  spokesman  to 
represent  them  before  the  assembled  Presbyterians  of 
the  World  in  the  General  Presbyterian  Council  to  be 
held   in    this   City  in    the   Autumn  of  this   year,  and 
Princeton  Theological  Seminary  has  lost  its  wise  coun- 
selor, its  influential  and  untiring  friend.    The  Lord  has 


FUNERAL   ADDRESS. 


stricken  us  to  the  heart  with  his  own  hand.  Let  us 
not  shrink  from  feehng  all  its  crushing  pain  that  his 
purpose  in  wounding  us  may  be  fully  realized.  It  is 
God's  wonderful  prerogative  to  bring  good  out  of  evil, 
and  gain  out  of  loss,  but  the  evil  and  loss  remain  al- 
ways what  they  are  in  themselves. 

But  while  we  ouaht  to  recoo-nize  the  fact  that  we 

o  o 

have  met  with  a  great  disaster,  it  is  nevertheless  our 
privilege  to  sorrow  after  a  Godly  sort.  The  same 
God  who  made  our  friend,  and  who  endowed  him  so 
plenteously  with  the  adornments  of  grace  and  the 
ofifts  of  beneficent  service,  and  who  bv  His  o-race  and 
providence  has  supported  and  directed  him  in  his 
past  usefulness  has  now  removed  him.  This  family, 
this  congregation,  this  great  Presbyterian  denomina- 
tion, our  Princeton  school  of  the  Prophets  are  dearer 
to  the  Divine  heart  which  has  inflicted  this  blow,  than 
they  are  to  us,  Thei^efore  zue  are  not  deserted.  We 
are  nq^only  to  submit  to  the  inevitable,  but  to  kiss  the 
rod  in  the  assurance  of  the  infallible  wisdom  and  un- 
selfish love  which  have  directed  it  and  given  it  its  pier- 
cing sting.  As  the  Romanistic  believer  interposes  the 
crucifix  and  the  ritual  between  his  faith  and  Christ, 
and  passionately  clings  to  that  system  which  professes 
to  make  divine  realties  matters  of  sight,  so  we  Protes- 
tants, who  share  the  same  nature,  put  these  beautiful 


FUNERAL   ADDRESS. 


old  saints,  glorified  in  the  light  of  their  closing  day,  be- 
tween us  and  Christ,  and  ding  to  them  as  to  that  which 
makes  Him  and  His  saving  power  visible  and  tangible 
to  us.     We  cannot  bear  to  be   driven  out  from   the 
shelter  of  our  accustomed  prophets  and  apostles.     But 
when  God  removes  them  one  by  one  from  our  sight,  we 
have  no  choice,  we  are  under  the  necessity  of  walking 
by  faith,  alone  with  the  invisible  God.     It  is  very  hard 
at  first.     We  must  go  with  our  church  despoiled  of  its 
heads  and  ornaments  ;   we  must  grope  our  way  with- 
out the  living  voices  of  our  old  teachers  and  guides ; 
we  must  work  our  own  way  to  death  without  the  cheer- 
ing presence  of  the  old  saints.     But  doubtless  it  will 
be  better  in   the  end.      Death  is  a  step  upward  to  a 
higher  grade.     Our  old  Father,  and  Pastor  and  Friend 
has  been  promoted,  and  his  promotion  has  lifted  us  all 
up  a  step  higher  with  himself.     And  now  and  always 
hereafter,  we   shall  have   another   reason   for   looking 
beyond  all  created  help  direcdy  to  God,  and  for  culti- 
vating that  spiritual  sense  which  independently  of  all 
symbols,  and   of   all    created   media,   opens    the   soul 
direcdy  to  the  life  and  radiance  of  the  heavenly  world. 
His  life  was  full  of  fruitful  labors,  as  well  as  of  dis- 
tinguished  honors,  the   wonderful   story  of  which  will 
hereafter  be  given  to  you  by  a  competent  hand.     The 
whole  will  be  appreciated  as  more  wonderful  because 


FUNERAL  ADDRESS. 


of  the  pathetic  fact  that  his  work  was  accomplished 
under  the  condition  of  constant  physical  feebleness, 
and  of  frequent  and  protracted  interruption  because 
of  severe  illness. 

The  foundation  for  this  was  laid  in  a  severe  attack 
of  sickness  contracted  on  a  necessary  visit  to  the  North 
only  two  weeks  after  his  installation.  This  led  to  sus- 
pension of  his  ministry  for  several  weeks,  or  months 
together.  In  1847  he  was  for  a  year  absent  in  Europe, 
and  in  later  years  these  absences  were  more  frequent. 
He  has  found  refuge  at  the  sea-shore,  and  in  the  in- 
vigorating climates  of  the  North-west.  These  frequent 
relapses  exhausted  gradually  the  resources  of  an  origi- 
nally fine  constitution,  and  left  him  at  the  last  exceed- 
ingly feeble  and  liable  to  be  prostrated  by  compara- 
tively slight  attacks  of  acute  disease. 

This  long  continued  dispensation  of  pain  and  weak- 
ness with  the  blessing  of  divine  grace  contributed  to 
perfect  and  to  add  new  and  higher  excellences  to  the 
graces  of  nature.  His  Christian  faith,  and  love,  and 
hope  bloomed  years  ago  in  singular  beauty  and  fra- 
grance, but  in  more  recent  years  they  have  ripened  to 
a  perfection  altogether  heavenly.  He  waited  for  his 
change,  his  face  shining  with  the  slanting  rays  of  the 
rising  sun  of  an  eternal  day.  Meanwhile  he  sought  to 
labor  while  the  earthly  day  lasted,     On  the  middle  day 


FUNERAL   ADDRESS. 


of  the  week  preceding  his  translation  he  wrote  with 
great  tenderness  to  a  special  friend,  of  a  matter  which 
it  was  very  near  to  his  heart  to  accomplish  for  the 
Church  of  God,  in  which  letter  with  almost  the  spirit 
of  prophecy,  he  alludes  not  only  to  this  as  being  the 
last  service  he  might  render  to  the  church,  but  also  to 
the  fact  that  but  litde  time  was  left  to  him  to  accom- 
plish any  earthly  work.  In  the  end  he  suffered  phys- 
ical pain,  but  no  apprehension  of  immediate  death. 
His  Heavenly  Father  ordered  the  manner  of  his  de- 
parture with  infinite  tenderness.  He  slept  in  peace  to 
awake  in  glory. 

His  almost  peerless  sweetness  and  loveliness  in 
the  social  circle  a  large  band  of  friends  as  well  as  his 
own  children  will  never  forget,  nor  allow  to  be  forgot- 
ten in  the  next  generation.  His  beautiful  face  was 
transparent  to  the  radiations  of  a  beautiful  soul.  His 
overflowing  love,  his  quick  and  wide  sympathy,  his 
brio-ht  and  inexhaustible  humor,  and  his  ready  wit,  and 
clear  intelligence  and  perfect  refinement  made  him  a 
most  delightful  companion-,  and  connected  with  his  un- 
swerving loyalty  made  him  an  inexpressibly  precious 

friend, 

I  stand  here  to-day  because  I  am  the  son  of  his  life- 
lono-  friend  in  Princeton.  He  addressed  to  my  Father 
the  exquisitely  beautiful  salutation,  in  the  name  of  the 


lO  FUNERAL   ADDRESS. 

Board  of  Directors,  on  the  semi-centennial  anniversary 
of  his  Professorship.  On  his  eightieth  birth-day,  Dr. 
Boardman  signaHzed  the  event  in  the  "  Presbyterian  " 
without  signing  his  name.  To  this  the  older  friend 
responded  in  a  letter  as  yet  unprinted : — 

Princeton,  Jan.  /j,  i8y8. 

My  Dear  Doctor  : — 

If  you  were  in  one  room  and  Adelina  Patti  singing  in 
another,  the  doors  being  opened,  you  would  not  need  to  ask 
who  it  was.  So  when  I  read  the  article  in  the  last  "  Presby- 
terian y  I  was  at  no  loss  as  to  its  author,  I  know  only  one  man 
who  has  the  goodness,  the  skill,  the  delicacy  and  refinement 
which  it  manifests,  I  would  be  a  churl  if  I  were  not  grateful 
for  such  a  tribute. 

We  are  looking  forward  to  the  pleasure  of  seeing  you  next 
week. 

Your  affectionate  Friend, 

CHARLES  HODGE. 

When  our  Father  died  his  sons  immediately  applied 
to  his  friend  to  deliver  the  funeral  address,  and  after- 
wards to  write  his  permament  memoir.  He  was  pre- 
vented only  by  the  weakness  of  the  fiesh.  And  now 
alas  it  is  left  to  me  with  my  unskillful  fingers  to  at- 
tempt to  weave  a  chaplet  for  both  their  brows.  They 
are  together  now,  and  have  taken  their  places  with  the 
immortals : — 


FUNERAL  ADDRESS.  \\ 

We  know  not 
What  holy  joys  are  there, 
What  radiancy  of  glory 
What  light  beyond  compare. 

There  is  the  throne  of  David, 
And  there  from  care  released. 
The  song  of  them  that  triumph,  . 
The  shout  of  them  that  feast. 

And  they  who  with  their  Leader 

Have  conquered  in  the  fight, 

Forever  and  forever,  are  clad  in  robes  of  light. 


A    SERMON 

COMMEMORATIVE   OF   THE 

LIFE  AND  WORK 

OF   THE 

REV,  HENRY  AUGUSTUS  BOARDMAN,D,D.. 

Late  Pastor  of  the  Tenth  Presbyterian  Church, 
OF  PHILADELPHIA, 

PREACHED    BY   HIS    SUCCESSOR, 

The  Rev.  John'DeWitt,  D.  D., 

November  28,   1880. 


PHILADELPHIA 
1881. 


Sermon. 


Psalm  l.,isi,  ■znd,  ^rd  and  6tk  verses : — Blessed  is  the  man  that  walketh  not  in  the  counsel  of 
the  ungodly,  nor  standeth  in  the  way  of  sinners,  nor  setteth  in  the  seat  of  the  scornful.  But 
his  delight  is  in  the  law  of  the  Lord,  and  in  his  law  doth  he  meditate  day  and  night.  And  he 
shall  be  like  a  tree  planted  by  the  rivers  of  water,  that  bringeth  forth  his  fruit  in  his  season  ; 
his  leaf  also  shall  not  wither;  and  whatsoever  he  doeth  shall  prosper.  For  the  Lord  knoweth 
the  way  of  the  righteous. 


T 


HERE  is  a  tendency,  wide-spread  and  well-defined 
X  to  underrate  the  greatness  of  a  life  as  quiet  and 
uneventful  as  that  which  we  have  met  to  commem- 
orate. Talents,  influence  and  character,  men  are  too 
apt  to  associate  with  noise  and  publicity,  with  the 
gathering  and  acclamation  of  multitudes.  All  of  us  are 
tempted  to  measure  power  by  the  fleeting  sensation 
excited ;  not  by  the  abiding  impression  that  would  be 
produced  could  thought  have  its  perfect  work.  The 
blazing  meteor  diverts  the  eye  from  Orion  or  the  Plei- 
ades; and  it  requires  reflection  to  re-impress  the  truth 
that  not  so  sublimely  in  the  "bearded  meteor  trailing 
light,"  as  in  the  "starry  clusters,"  the  heavens  declare 


1 6  SERMON. 


the  glory  of  God,  and  the  firmament  showeth  his 
handiwork.  But  after  death  cometh  the  judgment, 
here  as  well  as  above.  Calm  thought  is  in  abeyance 
while  the  man  lives  and  moves  among  us.  The  feel- 
ings are  unduly  wrought  upon  by  events  and  circum- 
stances, which,  on  reflection,  we  should  regard  as  insig- 
nificant. Even  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  while  he  lived,  was 
misunderstood  by  those  to  whom  He  was  specially  re- 
vealed. It  was  expedient  for  them  that  He  should  go 
away.  They  did  not  know  Him  until  the  cloud  had  re- 
ceived Him  out  of  sight.  So  Francis  Bacon,  referring, 
as  Lord  Macaulay  interprets  the  words  of  his  will,  not 
to  his  weak  wickedness,  but  to  his  splendid  contribu- 
tions to  the  advancement  of  learning,  left  his  name  and 
memory  to  "  the  next  age."  Thus  death  prepares  the 
way  for  justice. 

"  Great  captains  with  their  guns  and  drums 

Disturb  our  judgment  for  the  hour; 
But  at  last  silence  comes." 

Now  that  the  form  which,  for  forty-seven  years  was 
a  familiar  form  in  our  City,  has  vanished,  and  the  voice 
which  these  walls  echoed  is  silent,  the  time  has  come 
to  recall  his  life,  and  to  state  our  impressions  of  the 
man  and  of  his  career. 

Nor  is  it  unbecoming  to  select,  for  this  purpose, 
this  sacred  place  and  this  holy  time.  Dr.  Boardman 
was  above  all  else,  "a  servant  of  God  and  of  the  Lord 


SERMON.  I J 


Jesus  Christ."  And  if  the  gospel  of  Christ  is  most 
effectively  preached  by  the  lives  of  his  servants,  it  is 
only  preaching  the  gospel  to  repeat  the  story  of  them 
after  they  have  died.  Certainly,  I  need  offer  no  apol- 
ogy for  briefly  relating  the  incidents  of  the  life  of  a 
man,  of  whom,  whatever  else  may  be  said  of  him,  we 
can  truthfully  repeat  what  is  said  of  the  blessed  man 
of  the  first  Psalm: — "Blessed  is  the  man  whose  delight 
"  is  in  the  law  of  the  Lord,  and  in  his  law  doth  he  med- 
"  itate  day  and  night.  And  he  shall  be  like  a  tree 
"  planted  by  the  rivers  of  water,  that  bringeth  forth  his 
'•fruit  in  his  season.  His  leaf  shall  not  wither,  and 
"whatsoever  he  doeth  shall  prosper:  for  the  Lord 
"knoweth  the  way  of  the  righteous." 

Henry  Augustus  Boardman  was  born  in  Troy, 
New  York,  on  the  ninth  day  of  January,  1808.  His 
father  was  John  Boardman,  a  descendant  of  one  of 
the  Puritan  families  that  settled  in  what  is  now  known 
as  Litchfield  County,  Connecticut,  about  the  middle 
of  the  seventeenth  century.  John  Boardman  became 
a  merchant.  About  the  beginning  of  this  century 
he  associated  himself  with  another  gentleman,  also 
bearing  a  well  known  Connecticut  name,  and  es- 
tablished in  Troy — which  had  just  then  been  or  was 
soon  afterwards  incorporated  as  a  village — the  firm  of 
Hillhouse  and  Boardman.  The  house  prospered  ;  and 
2 


1 8  SERMON. 


Mr.  Boardman,  dying  in  1813,  when  Henry  was  but 
five  years  old,  left  his  widow  and  children  a  modest 
fortune.  He  was  an  able  merchant,  a  public-spirited 
citizen,  and  a  consistent  Christian.  Dr.  Boardman, 
though  his  recollections  of  his  father  were  exceedingly 
meagre,  was  taught  by  his  mother  deeply  to  venerate 
his  memory. 

Dr.  Boardman's  mother  was  Clarinda  Starbuck,  of 
Nantucket,  Mass.  ;  the  daughter  of  Daniel  and  Mary 
(Folger)  Starbuck.  She  was  born  in  1773.  The  Star- 
bucks were  members  of  the  Society  of  Friends.  Ed- 
ward Starbuck  fled,  in  the  latter  part  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  from  Salisbury,  in  Essex,  the  Northeastern 
country  of  the  Commonwealth,  to  escape  the  unfriend- 
ness  of  the  Puritans :  moving  In  all  probability  by 
water  across  the  Massachusetts  Bay,  and  around  the 
sandy  shore  of  Cape  Cod,  to  the  island,  on  which 
he  founded  a  new  home.  There  the  family  lived 
in  peace.  They  prospered  as  farmers  from  genera- 
tion to  generation.  His  grandmother,  as  I  have  said, 
was  Mary  Folger.  Mary  Folger  was  the  great-grand- 
daughter of  Peter  Folger,  who  was  the  grandfather 
of  Benjamin  Franklin.  Through  the  Folgers,  Dr. 
Boardman  was  related  also  to  one  of  the  most  not- 
able women  that  have  lived  in  Philadelphia :  a  woman 
who  held  opinions,  on  many  subjects,  sharply  opposed 


SERMON.  19 


to  those  associated  with  Dr.  Boardman's  name,  but  a 
woman  whose  lofty  purposes  and  distinguished  abihty 
and  wide  culture  and  fine  simplicity  of  character  and 
life,  he  would  have  been  quick  to  recognize.  I  refer 
to  the  late  Lucretia  Mott,  who,  within  a  few  weeks 
has  been  carried  to  her  grave,  lamented  by  a  wide 
circle  of  friends,  which  embraces  distingfuished  men 
and  women  of  more  than  one  land,  and  creed,  and 
race. 

Dr.  Boardman's  mother  attended  the  Friends'  meet- 
ing at  Nantucket,  while  she  remained  in  her  father's 
home.  But  when  she  married  Mr.  Boardman  and 
went  to  Troy,  she  and  her  husband  united  with  the 
Presbyterian  Church.  In  this  way,  though  the  son  of 
a  Puritan  father  and  of  a  "  Quaker  "  mother,  your  Pas- 
tor was  born  in  the  Church  of  which  he  became  so 
distinguished  and  influential  a  minister. 

If  he  was  unfortunate  in  losino- his  father  when  but 
five  years  of  age,  he  felt,  throughout  his  life,  profoundly 
grateful  to  God  that  his  mother  lived  until  he  had  al- 
most reached  middle  life.  She  died  on  the  second  of 
March,  1846.  Mrs.  John  Boardman  was  a  remarkable 
woman.  The  death  of  her  husband  threw  upon  her 
the  sole  responsibility  of  rearing  a  large  family.  Dr. 
Charles  Wadsworth  was  her  pastor  for  several  years 
before    her  death ;    and    in   a   beautiful    tribute,   from 


20  SERMON. 


which  I  regret  that  time  does  not  permit  me  to  quote, 
he  records  his  high  estimate  of  her  abihty  and  pro- 
found piety /='  Her  niece,  Miss  Starbuck,  of  Nantucket, 
says  that  "  she  was  a  good  and  dutiful  daughter  and 

"^The  following  notice  of  Mrs.  Clarinda  Boardnian,  and  written  by  her  Pas- 
tor, the  Rev.  Dr.  Charles  Wadsworth,  appeared  just  after  her  death  in  the  ''Troy, 
N.   Y.,  Whig:' 

Mr.  Editor  : — Your  paper  announced  a  few  days  since  the  decease  of 
Mrs.  Clarinda  Boardman,  of  this  City.  Seldom  has  a  single  death  created  a 
deeper  and  more  general  impression  than  this;  an  impression  of  warmest  sym- 
pathy for  an  endeared  circle  of  afflicted  children,  and  of  personal  sorrow  for  the 
loss  of  one  so  universally  respected  and  beloved. 

It  will  be  permitted  one  who  knew  her  intimately  to  say — not  in  the  spirit 
of  unmeaning  eulogy  of  the  dead — but  to  magnify  the  grace  of  God,  which 
wrought  in  her  so  mightily — that  rarely  has  the  female  character  exhibited  so 
fine  a  combination  of  natural  gifts  and  Christian  graces.  An  intellect  uncom- 
monly strong  and  commanding  was  united  to  a  disposition  the  most  mild,  gentle 
and  affectionate.  Sensibilities  exquisitely  tender  and  delicate  were  blended 
with  the  most  practical  common  sense,  and  the  firmest  decision  of  character. 

With  a  cordial  despisal  of  all  that  was  not  generous  and  noble,  and  a  man- 
ner altogether  fearless  in  its  frankness,  yet  were  her  actions  and  words  character- 
ized by  benignity  and  love,  that  probably  in  the  wide  circle  of  her  acquaintances 
there  is  not  one  who  was  not  \\&x  friend  as  well. 

An  almost  oppressive  sense  of  maternal  and  Christian  responsibilities  never 
for  a  moment  overcame  her  serene  and  sanctified  cheerfulness.  An  abiding  and 
firm  confidence  of  Christian  hope,  met  in  her  character,  with  the  utmost  child- 
like meekness,  humility  and  self-distrust. 

As  the  widow  of  one  of  the  founders  and  most  influential  citizens  of  Troy, 
her  position  in  life  was  in  its  highest  social  circles.  And  while  refinement  of  in- 
tellect and  manners  rendered  her  the  delight  of  such  society,  her  warm  heart  was 
ever  in  the  home  of  the  afflicted,  and  her  abounding  "and  unostentatious  charities 
have  rendered  her  name  a  household  word  in  the  dwellings  of  the  poor. 


SERMON.  2 1 


"  wife,  a  kind  sister,  a  woman  of  excellent  sense  and 
"judgment,  not  merely  just,  but  liberal  in  her  dealings 
"with  others,  and  respected,  esteemed  and  beloved  by 
"relatives  and  friends."     When   God  called  her  from 


In  her  religious  belieT,  being  strongly  Calvinistic,  and  relying  solely  for  salva- 
tion on  the  unconditional  atonement  of  Christ  Jesus,  her  religious  life  was  the  finest 
demonstration  of  the  practical  harmony  of  faith  and  good  works.  She  was 
emphatically  a  Practical  Christian.  As  perceived  in  her,  religion  was  no  prin- 
ciple shut  away  in  separation  from  common  life.  It  was  no  poetical  sentiment. 
It  was  no  spasm  of  excited  feeling.  It  was  sustained  in  its  influences.  It  was 
symmetrical  in  its  proportions.  It  was  the  pure  atmosphere  she  breathed.  It 
was  the  inner  element  of  her  being.  Its  daily  power  was  manifested  in  the  vigi- 
lant fidelity  wherewith  she  watched  the  interests  of  her  household — in  the  self- 
sacrificing  love  with  which  she  educated,  for  usefulness  and  honor,  her  fatherless 
children — in  the  alacrity  and  delight  wherewith  she  engaged  in  every  work  of 
benevolence — in  the  scrupulous  care  with  which,  setting  God's  word,  as  her 
rule  of  life,  high  above  the  maxims  of  the  world,  she  avoided  the  very  appear- 
ance of  evil — in  the  trustful  and  serene  fortitude  wherewith  she  sustained  the 
severest  afflictions,  and  in  the  calm  and  fearless  faith  wherewith  she  leaned  on  the 
Redeemer  in  her  dying  hour. 

Her  religion  made  her  neither  bigot  nor  enthusiast,  but  it  did  make  her  the 
truest  benefactress  of  the  poor,  the  most  delightful  companion  of  the  rejoicing, 
the  tenderest  and  most  beloved  of  mothers,  the  kindest  and  most  unchangeable 
of  friends.  It  was  the  pervading  and  sanctifying  spirit  of  all  her  earthly  minis- 
tries— a  principle  founded  on  the  judgment  and  beautified  by  the  warm  play  of 
the  affections — a  lovely  and  most  rare  amalgam  of  the  intellect  and  the  heart. 

As  such  God  has  taken  her  to  glory — she  has  left  a  church  to  weep  the  loss 
of  her  earnest  prayers  and  her  bright  example — a  wide  circle  of  friends  to  cherish 
the  memory  of  her  virtues  -the  poor  and  the  afflicted  to  lament  the  loss  of  their 
kindest  benefactress — and  honored  children  to  find  life  henceforth  bereft  of  its 
sweetest  ministry — a  mothers  love. 

Troy,  March  lo,  1846.  C.  W. 


22  SERMON. 


her  labors  on  earth  to  her  reward  in  heaven,  her  dis- 
tinguished son  poured  out  his  grief  and  gratitude  and 
admiration  in  letters  to  his  friends,  from  which  I  am 
permitted  to  quote.  "  My  thoughts,"  he  writes,  "  have 
"been  busy  with  the  past.  Bereft  of  a  father  when  only 
"five  years  of  age,  I  was  thrown,  with  my  brothers  and 
"  sisters,  upon  the  sole  care  of  my  beloved  mother. 
"She  accepted  the  trust  to  which  Providence  called  her, 
"and  from  that  time  lived  for  God  and  for  her  children. 
"When  I  consider  with  what  blended  love  and  firmness, 
"with  what  patience  of  fortitude,  with  what  'meekness 
"  of  wisdom '  and  steadfast  reliance  on  God,  she  pur- 
*'  sued  through  so  many  years,  and  in  the  face  of  innu- 
"  merable  discouragements  and  embarrassments,  her 
"arduous  work,  I  cannot  refrain  from  admiring  the 
"  riches  of  that  grace  which  guided  and  sustained  her," 
After  referring  to  Dr.  Wadsworth's  "  eloquent  and 
appropriate,"  and,  as  he  beHeves  all  who  knew  her 
must  have  felt  to  be,  "just  tribute  to  her  character/' 
and  after  dwelling  at  some  length  on  her  wise  and 
large  benevolence  and  her  love  of  the  word  of  God, 
he  closes  his  letter  (written,  it  will  be  remembered, 
when  he  was  thirty-eight  years  old,  and  after  he  had 
been  pastor  of  this  Church  for  thirteen  years)  with 
these  words: — "Never  have  I  known  a  mother  more 
"devoted  to  her  children,  more  disposed  to  deny  herself 


SERMON.  23 


"and  make  sacrifices  for  their  conduct  more  solicitous 
"for  them  in  sickness  or  in  danger,  more  tenderly  ahve 
"to  their  sorrows,  more  sagacious  and  prudent  in  giv- 
"ing  them  couusel,  more  unwearied  in  her  efforts  to 
"make  their  home  pleasant  and  attractive  to  them,  or 
"more  sincerely  concerned  for  their  best  interests  in 
"time  and  in  eternity.  Her  character  is  a  rich  legacy 
"to  her  children,  and  my  tongue  must  cleave  to  the  roof 
"of  my  mouth  if  I  forget  to  bless  God  that  I  have  had 
"such  a  mother," 

Thus  in  his  early  home  religion,  intelligence,  and 
refinement  united  to  mould  the  mind,  and  form  the 
taste,  and  determine  the  character  of  the  child  and 
growing  boy.  His  parents  and  their  other  children  all 
preceded  him  on  the  inevitable  journey  to  the  other 
world.  Their  bodies  are  buried  at  Troy.  Not  many 
years  since,  as  the  last  surviving  member  of  his  father's 
household,  he  visited  their  graves,  and  caused  to  be 
inscribed  on  the  central  monument  this  sentence, 
which  finely  tells  the  story  of  their  religious  nature: — 
"Jesus  Christ,  of  whom  the  whole  family,  in  heaven 
and  on  earth,  is  named." 

It  was  while  yet  a  boy — a  boy  of  twelve  or  thirteen 
years  of  age — that  he  read  and  became  enamored  of  a 
book,  the  influence  of  which,  exerted  as  it  was  at  the 
most  receptive  period  of  his  life,  contributed  largely  to 


24  SERMON. 


make  him  the  man  that  you  and  I  knew  and  admired, 
and  revered  and  loved.  It  is  usually  the  case  that 
the  influence  of  the  first  great  book,  which  a  boy  of 
that  age  reads  delightedly,  abides  throughout  his  life  ; 
and  should  he  be  called  to  a  literary  career,  the  pro- 
ducts of  his  pen  will  reproduce  inevitably,  though  it 
may  be  to  himself  unconsciously,  the  traits  of  the 
author  that  awakened  and  inspired  him,  I  am  confi- 
dent that  I  shall  excite  no  surprise  when  I  say  that 
the  author  whom  Henr)^  Boardman,  twelve  years  old, 
most  admired,  and  the  book  which  he  loved  most  to 
read,  were  Joseph  Addison  and  "  The  Spectator!'  Dr. 
Boardman  was,  of  course,  no  imitator  or  copyist.  His 
style  was  emphatically  his  own.  A  wide  range  of 
reading  and  a  strong  personality  united  to  impress 
an  image  and  superscription,  on  all  he  w^rote,  to  be 
read  on  the  coinage  of  no  other's  brain.  But  no  one 
who  seeks  them  will  fail  to  detect  the  influence  of 
this,  his  first  literary  affection,  in  all  that  he  has  pub- 
lished. In  the  grace  and  vigor  of  his  language,  in 
that  something  that  we  call  the  literary  flavor,  which 
pervades  even  his  theological  discussions,  in  the  gentle 
and  genial  humor  with  which  all  are  dashed,  as  well  as 
in  traits  even  more  special,  we  may  discern  the  abiding 
influence  of  the  ereat  essayist  and  moralist,  of  whom 
Lord     Macaulay    has     said: — "Never,    not    even    by 


SERMON.  25 


"  Dryden,  not  even  by  Temple,  has  the  EngHsh  lancruage 
"  been  written  with  such  sweetness,  grace  and  facihty." 

His  Hfe  in  his  father's  home  moved  pleasantly  on, 
without  interruption,  until  he  was  sent,  first  to  Ver- 
mont and  afterwards  to  the  Academy  at  Kinderhook, 
New  York,  to  complete  his  preparations  for  College. 
He  has  given  a  pleasant  picture  of  his  school  life  in 
the  latter  place,  in  a  letter  written  to  a  valued  friend,  a 
lady  several  years  older  than  himself  It  is  a  boy's  let- 
ter ;  but  its  graceful  courtesy  shows  the  boy  to  have 
been  "father  to  the  man." 

The  next  year  he  entered  Yale  College,  as  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Freshman  Class.  He  pursued  faithfully 
and  with  honor  the  studies  of  the  course,  and  gradu- 
ated in  1829,  the  valedictorian  of  his  class.  He  was 
a  faithful  student  but  found  time  to  make  many  friends. 
Two  fellow  students,  with  whom  he  then  became  ac- 
quainted, became  two  of  his  most  intimate  and  valued 
friends.  One  of  these  was  the  Reverend  Dr.  Cortlandt 
Van  Rensselaer,  of  Burlington  ;  the  other  the  Rever- 
end Dr.  John  C.  Backus  of  Baltimore.  Just  before  his 
graduation,  Mr.  Boardman,  as  one  of  the  most  distin- 
guished students  of  the  College,  was  chosen  by  the 
united  action  of  the  students,  the  faculty  and  City  au- 
thorities, to  deliver  in  New  Haven  the  annual  Fourth 
of  July  oration.     The  young  orator  was  escorted  from 


26  SERMON. 


his  room,  through  the  avenue  of  elms,  by  the  stu- 
dents, the  faculty,  the  military  and  a  large  body  of 
citizens  to  the  Center  Church.  His  subject  was  well 
chosen  and  well  discussed.  He  addressed  his  audi- 
ence on  "the  importance  to  the  United  States  of  a 
national  literature  ;  a  literature,"  to  use  his  own  words, 
"  founded  on  national  associations ;  one  which  shall 
"  illustrate  events  in  our  own  history  ;  derive  its  prom- 
"  ineht  features  from  the  habits  of  thinking,  and  from 
"  the  tone  of  moral  and  political  sentiment  prevalent 
"  among  us,  as  a  people  ;  and  embody  those  hallowed 
"  feelings  and  recollections  which  indissolubly  bind  us 
"to  the  country  of  our  birth." 

During  his  senior  year  at  Yale  College  he  was  con- 
verted, and  a  year  later  he  professed  publicly  his 
Christian  faith.  He  had  chosen  the  law  as  his  calling  ; 
and  for  six  months,  at  Troy,  he  engaged  in  the  study 
of  jurisprudence.  No  one  who  remembers  Dr.  Board- 
man,  as  he  appeared  in  the  judicatories  of  the  Church, 
"  where  he  engaged  in  discussing  with  her  foremost 
men,  the  important  questions  in  agitation,"  and  recalls 
both  his  quick  and  sure  grasp  of  the  subjects  under 
debate,  his  fine  powers  of  explication  and  argument, 
and  the  grace  and  dignity  of  his  person  and  address, 
can  doubt,  that,  had  he  become  a  member  of  the  Bar, 
he  would  have  been  quite  as  distinguished  in  forensic, 


SERMON.  27 


as  he  became  in  pulpit  oratory.  Nor  would  he  have 
been  eminent  as  an  orator  alone.  His  wisdom  and 
character  would  have  made  him  a  sagacious  counselor ; 
and  the  fact  that  in  every  theological  and  ecclesiastical 
discussion  in  which  he  took  part,  he  was  thorough, 
learned,  and  profound,  justifies  the  belief  that  his 
course  would  have  been  along  the  very  highest  walks 
of  the  profession  ;  and  that  he  would  have  earned  the 
honorable  designation  of  "  learned  and  able  jurist." 
This  brief  course  in  the  study  of  the  law  not  only 
affected  his  method  of  sermonizing,  but  as  one  who 
knew  him  intimately  for  thirty  years — himself  an  emi- 
nent lawyer — has  said,  awakened  "a  fondness  for  the 
"science  of  jurisprudence,  which  he  ever  afterwards 
"retained."'''     These   studies    Mr.  Boardman   pursued 

*  The  Board  of  Trustees  of  the  Tenth  Presbyterian  Church  adopted  the  fol- 
lowing Minute,  -on  the  motion  of  Hon.  William  A.  Porter: — 

"  Henry  Augustus  Boardman  received  his  collegiate  training  at  Yale  College. 
"  After  his  graduation  he  devoted  several  months  to  the  study  of  the  law,  and 
"  ever  after  retained  a  fondness  for  the  science  of  jurisprudence.  Having  re- 
"  solved  to  enter  the  Christian  ministry,  he  became  a  student  in  the  Seminary  at 
"  Princeton,  in  the  Autumn  of  1830,  and  in  April,  1833,  "^^  ^^^  licensed  to  preach 
"  the  gospel.  He  preached  in  this  Church  on  the  succeeding  28th  of  July.  On 
"  the  2nd  of  September  he  was  unanimously  called  to  be  the  pastor  of  the  Church, 
"  and  was  ordained  and  installed  on  the  8th  of  November,  1833.  This  pastorate 
"  continued  for  more  than  forty-two  years.  It  was  never  broken  nor  suspended 
"  for  a  day  by  any  want  of  harmony  between  the  pastor  and  his  people.  Though 
"  called  during  this  time  by  other  Churches,  he  accepted  no  other  charge.     The 


28  SERMON. 


with  deepening  interest,  and  he  looked  forward  to  the 
practice  of  his  profession  not  without  ambition  and 
hope. 

I  am  happy  in  being  able  to  state,  with  satisfactory 
details,  the  reasons  that  led  him  to  turn  aside  from  his 
chosen  path  in  life,  as  these  were  unfolded  to  the  inti- 
mate and  trusted  friend,  from  whose  tribute  to  his  Pas- 
tor I  have  just  quoted,  judge  Porter,  in  reply  to  my 
inquiries,  writes  : — "  All  that  I  know  respecting  the  rea- 
"  sons  which  induced  Dr.  Boardman  to  abandon  the 
"study  of  the  law  and  to  enter  upon  that  of  theology, 
"  was  derived  from  conversations  with  him,  held  some- 
"  times  in  his  study,  sometimes  in  my  office,  but  oftener 
"on  the  street.  It  seems  that  durinor  his  Colleo-e 
"  course   at   Yale  it  was   intended   by  his    friends  and 

**  youthful  pastor  took  his  place  at  once  in  the  front  rank  of  pulpit  orators  in  this 
"  City.  When  he  entered  the  higher  courts  of  the  church  he  engaged  in  discuss- 
"  ing  with  her  foremost  men  the  important  questions  then  in  agitation,  and  his 
"  reputation  was  increased  and  established.  It  thus  happened  that  his  Church 
"  became  the  resort  of  many  of  the  strangers  who  visited  the  City,  and  the  evi- 
"  dence  is  clear  that  on  the  mind  of  many  a  casual  visitor  the  most  permanent  im- 
"pressions  were  produced. 

"  The  discourses  of  Dr.  Boardman  were  so  logically  arranged,  so  informed 
"  with  Scriptuial  truth,  so  illustrated  from  natural  objects  and  the  common  affairs 
"  of  men,  so  free  from  exaggeration,  and  so  marked  in  their  construction,  as  well 
"  as  their  delivery,  by  refined  taste  and  sound  judgment,  that  no  man  could  listen 
"to  them  without  profit.  It  is  the  concurrent  testimony  of  those  who  heard  him 
"  longest,  that  during  his  ministerial  life  he  never  preached  an  indifferent  dis- 
"  course.      When  he  rose  in  his  pulpit,  whether  sick  or  well,  he  knew  as  much  on 


SERMON.  29 


"  himself  that  he  should  become  a  lawyer.  Accordingly, 
"on  his  graduation  in  1829,  he  took  up  the  study  of 
"  the  law,  and  for  several  months  applied  himself  dill- 
"  gently  to  the  reading  of  the  elementary  works.  I 
*'  never  heard  him  mention  the  name  of  a  preceptor, 
"but  I  infer  that  some  friend  of  his  father's  family,  in 
"Troy,  directed  his  studies.  He  becatne  fond  of  the 
"  law,  was  greatly  impressed  with  the  clearness  of  the 
"  definitions  which  he  found  in  the  works  of  the  old 
"  writers,  with  the  profound  logic  which  these  writers 
"  employed,  and,  more  than  all,  with  the  comprehen- 
"  siveness  of  the  science  of  jurisprudence.  He  never 
"  lost  his  fondness  for  these  studies.  I  have  known  him 
"  to  read  elaborate  legal  arguments  written  by  his 
"  friends  in  cases  in  which  he  had  no  interest  whatever. 

"the  subject  of  his  discourse  as  any  other  man  could  acquire.  He  was  notable 
"  for  his  courage.  He  dicl  not  hesitate  to  oppose  any  pubUc  sentiment  in  the 
"  church  or  the  State  on  any  subject,  however  exciting,  which  he  iaelieved  to  be 
♦'  erroneous,  and  many  of  the  hearers  who  most  differed  from  him  gave  to  such 
"  utterances  the  heartiest  approval.  As  a  pastor,  his  visits  were  not  frequent,  for 
"  his  health  was  fragile;  but  his  sympathy  with  the  sorrowful  was  so  great,  and 
"  he  presented  the  consolations  of  religion  so  tenderly,  that  he  caused  the  face  of 
"  many  a  poor  sufferer,  for  whom  the  world  cared  nothing,  to  beam  with  a  celes- 
"  tial  joy.  The  purity  of  his  private  life  was  one  of  his  great  powers  for  good. 
"  He  was  a  man  of  a  delicate  sense  of  honor.  During  all  his  ministry  he  was  the 
"  recipient,  to  an  unusual  extent,  of  the  confidence  of  his  people,  and  so  carefully 
"  was  this  guarded  that  in  no  one  instance,  by  any  accident  of  word  or  look,  was 
"  it  betrayed.  His  habit  was  not  to  repeat  that  which  had  been  told  him,  and  if 
"  ever  he  departed  from  this   rule  it   was  done  so  carefully,  and  so  nearly  in   the 


30  SERMON. 


"  I  have,  on  a  few  occasions,  seen  him  in  Court  Hsten- 
"  ing  to  oral  discussions.  In  the  long  protracted  jury 
"  trial  which  grew  out  of  the  suspension  of  Mr.  George 
"  H,  Stuart,  for  the  alleged  singing  of  hymns,  I  remem- 
"  ber  that  Dr.  Boardmah  sat  out  the  long  speeches  of 
''  counsel  in  a  crowded  Court  room,  and  seemed  to 
'*  greatly  enjoy  the  arguments  which  were  presented. 
"  While  engaged  in  the  legal  studies  of  which  I  have 
"spoken,  a  train  of  thought  of  this  kind  occurred  to 
"  him  :  this  is  all  very  well ;  but  there  must  be  a  higher 
"  and  better  kind  of  law.  The  system  of  law  which 
"  o-overns  the  moral  universe  must  be  more  certain, 
"  complete  and  comprehensive.  What  do  I  know  of 
"  this  law  ?  What  do  I  know  of  the  Creator  and  His 
"  attributes  ?     Is  the   account  given   in  the  Scriptures 

•'  words  of  his  informant,  that  no  personal  or  domestic  disquietude  was  ever  pro- 
"duced  through  him.  He  seldom  paid  a  compliment,  and  he  never  uttered  a 
"  sneer. 

"  Before  the  public  Dr.  Boardman  was  a  reserved,  dignified,  and  courtly  man; 
"in  private  life  he  was  accessible,  affable,  and  gentle,  delighting  in  personal  anec- 
"  dote  and  reminiscence,  with  a  keen  sense  of  wit  and  humor,  and  indulging 
"  often  in  the  merriment  of  a  happy  child.  Thus  he  passed  his  long  and  useful 
"  life.  In  the  Spring  of  1876,  his  health  having  declined,  he  relinquished  his 
"  charge  on  the  25th  of  May,  and  was  chosen  Pastor  Emeritus.  A  successor  to 
"his  place  was  elected  just  to  his  mind,  and  it  was  beautiful  to  witness  the  inter- 
" course  which  subsisted  between  the  outgoing  and  the  incoming  pastor — fatherly 
«'  kindness  on  one  side  and  filial  devotion  on  the  other.  The  ministrations  of  Dr. 
''  De  Witt  probably  gave  to  no  one  more  pleasure  than  to  his  venerable  predecessor. 
"  The  latter  continued  to  preach  occasionally,  and  never  with  any  abatement  of 


SERMON.  3 1 


"authentic?  If  it  be,  then  the  entrance  into  this  world 
"of  the  Saviour  of  men  to  satisfy  a  divine  law  is  the 
"  most  stupendous  transacdon  the  race  has  witnessed. 
"  If  I  am  to  devote  myself  to  the  study  of  the  law,  I 
"ought  to  begin  further  back  and  know  something 
"  more  of  matters  in  which  my  fellow-men  and  myself 
"  have  so  vast  a  stake.  This  train  of  thought  seems 
"  to  have  led  him  to  the  study  of  works  combining 
"  philosophy  and  theology,  and  especially  those  on  the 
"  evidences  of  Christianity.  The  result  was  an  un- 
"  qualified  belief  in  the  authenticity  of  the  sacred 
"writings,  and  of  the  doctrines  which  they  teach. 
"  Next  came  a  question  which  he  had  not  foreseen.  If 
"I  really  believe  in  these  doctrines,  why  should  I  not 
"take  part  in  making  them  known  to  others?  Why 
"  should  I  devote  myself  to  the  study  of  that  law 
"which  merely  regulates  the  temporal  concerns  of 
'  men  ?  Why  should  I  not  assist  in  expounding  the 
"principles  of  that  divine  law  which  was  intended  to 
"regulate  their  hio-her  life?  This  resulted  in  his  en- 
"  tering  the  Seminary  at  Princeton,  in  the  Autumn  of 

"  his  intellectual  powers.  His  last  sermon  was  from  the  text : — '  Come  unto  me 
"  all  ye  that  labor  and  are  heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest.'  In  a  few  short 
*'  weeks,  without  long  protracted  sickness  and  pain,  he  realized  the  promise  of 
"  the  text : — '  I  will  give  you  rest.'  He  died  on  the  15th  of  June,  1S80.  A  Board 
"  of  Trustees,  who  long  stood  by  him  in  his  work,  have  thought  it  fitting  to  enter 
"  here  this  brief  record  of  his  life  and  his  death." 


SERMON. 


"  1830.  Concerning  his  course  there,  you  need  no  in- 
"  formation  from  me.  This  only  I  will  add — for  he  fre- 
"  quently  referred  to  it — that  during  his  course  in  the 
"  Seminary  he  clung  closely  to  the  desire  of  spending 
"his  life  as  the  pastor  of  a  small  church  in  some  rural 
"  neighborhood,  where  he  could  become  personally  ac- 
"quainted  with  the  members  of  his  flock,  address 
"  them  in  simple  and  familiar  words,  advise  with  them 
"  in  their  cares  and  trials,  and  share  with  them  their 
"  joys  and  sorrows.  His  call  to  one  of  the  most  im- 
"portant  city  pulpits,  and  the  pressure  brought  upon 
"  him  by  his  preceptors  to  accept  the  call,  seems  to 
"  have  been  the  great  surprise  ot    his  life." 

Thus  he  sacrificed  inclination  to  a  sense  of  duty. 
He  began  his  theological  studies  in  obedience  to  what 
he  then  believed  to  be,  and  what  his  career  as  a  clergy- 
man justified  him  ever  afterwards  in  believing  to  have 
been,  the  "  inward  call  of  God."  But  having  made  the 
sacrifice  he  at  once  found  his  reward.  His  life  at 
Princeton  he  thoroughly  enjoyed.  Some  of  his  Col- 
lege friendships  were  renewed  and  new  friendships 
were  formed.  The  Theological  Seminary  itself  soon 
became  the  object  of  his  warmest  affection:  an  affection 
which  increased  with  every  year  of  his  life,  and  was 
manifested  in  untiring  and  most  fruitful  labor  to  ad- 
vance its  interests.     This  is  an  appropriate  place  to -say 


SERMON, 


that  one  of  the  last  labors  of  Dr.  Boardman's  life  was 
an  undertaking,  as  one  of  its  Directors,  having  in  view 
an  enlargement  of  its  beneficent  influence.  Of  his 
great  indebtedness  to  his  instructors  at  the  Seminary 
— the  benign  and  courdy  Dr.  Miller,  the  wise  Dr.  Archi- 
bald Alexander  and  the  latter's  brilliant  and  inspiridng 
son,  Addison,  who  began  his  course  as  Instructor  the 
year  in  which  Mr.  Boardman  became  a  Student, — of 
his  indebtedness  to  his  Instructors,  Dr.  Boardman 
loved  to  speak  in  terms  of  die  liveliest  eradtude. 
Charles  Hodge  was  the  remaining  Professor.  Al- 
though Professor  Hodge  was  ten  years  older  than  Mr. 
Boardman,  the  Professor  and  Student  were  very  soon 
attracted  by  each  other,  and  became  intimate  friends. 
For  forty-eight  years,  until  the  death  of  Dr.  Hodge, 
this  friendship  continued,  strengthening  all  the  while. 
Not  one  event  occurred  during  this  period  of  almost 
a  half  century,  to  check  for  one  moment  their  intimate 
and  almost  fraternal  intercourse.  Thus  it  became  in 
the  highest  degree  appropriate,  that  when  Dr.  Hodge 
had  been  fifty  years  a  Professor  at  Princeton,  Dr. 
Boardman  should  bear  to  him  the  conaratulations  of 
the  Church  ;  and  that,  when  the  venerable  and  re- 
nowned theologian  was  summoned  to  his  reward.  Dr. 
Boardman  should  deliver  the  discourse  commemora- 
ting his  life  and  labors. 


34  SERMON. 


Just  before  his  graduation  at  Princeton  Seminary- 
Mr.  Boardman  sought  licensure  from  the  Presbytery 
of  New  York.  He  carried  to  that  body  testimonials 
from  the  senior  Professors  at  Princeton,  Dr.  Miller  and 
Dr.  Alexander.  Dr.  Miller  speaks  of  him  as  having 
"uniformly  sustained,  and  as  still  sustaining  excellent 
"  standing  in  the  senior  class  of  which  he  is  a  mem- 
"ber;"  and  Dr.  Alexander  says,  "the  religious  and 
"moral  character  of  Mr.  Boardman  is  unspotted ;  his 
"  talents  and  attainments  are  of  the  most  respectable 
"kind,  and  his  promise  of  usefulness  very  great." 
Armed  with  these  testimonials  and  with  his  trial 
pieces,  which  included  an  expository  lecture  on  the 
23rd  Psalm,  and  a  sermon  from  Colossians  iii.,  3: — 
"Set  your  affections  on  things  above,  not  on  things  on 
the  earth,"  he  appeared  before  the  Presbytery  and 
was   examined  and    licensed    on    the    17th   of  April, 

1833- 

His  appearance  and  manner  at  this  time  must  have 
been  exceedingly  attractive.  A  few  years  later,  the 
portrait,  which  the  older  members  of  the  congregation 
speak  of  in  terms  of  high  praise,  and  which  presents  a 
countenance  of  real  beauty,  of  benignity^  intelligence 
and  character,  was  painted  by  Peale.  I  am  told  by 
those  who  recall  the  young  Licentiate,  that  his  pulpit 
manners  and  his  elocution  were  marked  by  the  grace 


f 


SERMON.  35 


and  fine  propriety  with  which  all  of  us,  who  heard 
him  in  his  later  years,  were  familiar.  Out  of  the  pul- 
pit, then  as  always,  he  was  a  Christian  gentleman,  affa- 
ble to  all  and  approachable  by  all,  yet  not  without 
due  official  dignity,  which  forbade  any  to  "  despise  his 
youth."  To  these  we  must  add  the  talents  and  the 
scholarship,  which  he  had  already  proved  at  Yale,  by 
carrying  off  the  honors  of  his  class,  and  which  the  pru- 
dent Dr.  Alexander  had  described  as  "  of  the  most 
respectable  kind." 

Dr.  Boardman,  in  his  twenty-fifth  year  anniversary 
sermon,  referring  to  this  period,  says : — "  One  thing 
*'  only  I  had  regarded  as  settled  in  my  own  mind  re- 
"  specting  my  future  location  :  at  an  early  period  in 
"  my  theological  studies  I  had  resolved,  even  should 
"  the  opportunity  present  itself,  not  to  go  from  the 
"Seminary  to  a  large  city.  I  preferred  arural'con- 
"  gregation  as  a  matter  of  taste  and  feeling,  and  my 
"  deliberate  judgment  had  ratified  the  preference." 
But  his  preference  was  overruled  by  Providence. 
Calls,  or  invitations  which,  had  he  so  chosen,  would 
have  become  .calls,  all  of  them  hearty  and  some  of 
them  urgent,  came,  before  his  setdement,  from  Ral- 
eigh, Newburyport,  Newport,  R.  I.,  Columbia,  Pa., 
Trenton  and  Newark,  N.  J.,  Troy,  his  old  home,  the 
Pearl  Street  Presbyterian  Church  and  the  South  Dutch 


36  SERMON. 


y 


Reformed  Church,  of  New  York,  and  the  Tendi  Pres- 
byterian Church,  of  Philadelphia. 

This  last  Church,  with  which  he  was  associated  as 
Pastor  or  Pastor  Emeritus  from  his  ordination  until  his 
death,  was  composed  mainly  of  families  from  the  First, 
Second  and  Sixth  Churches  of  the  City.  The  gentle- 
men who  were  instrumental  in  establishing  it,  se- 
lected a  site  for  a  house  of  worship,  on  the  Western 
frontier  of  the  thickly  settled  part  of  Philadelphia. 
This  building  was  opened  for  worship  in  December, 
1829.  In  the  March  preceding  the  Church  organiza- 
tion was  perfected.  The  Rev.  Dr.  Thomas  McAuley 
was  the  first  Pastor.  "  After  remaining  here  three 
"  years,  during  which  period  his  labors  were  greatly 
"blessed,"  Dr.  McAuley  resigned  the  pastorate  in 
January,  1833,  ^"^  accepted  a  call  to  New  York.  The 
Rev.  James  W.  Alexander  seems  to  have  been  the 
first  person  to  mention  Mr.  Boardman's  name  to  the 
Tenth  Church.  "  In  1832,"  writes  Mr.  John  McArthur, 
now  the  senior  Ruling  Elder  of  the  Church,  "  the  'Pres- 
"  byterian'  newspaper  was  established.  The  first  editor 
"  resigning  in  the  Spring  of  1833,  Mr.  Alexander  was 
"  called  to  the  position  thus  made  vacant.  Early  in 
"  that  Summer  I  was  called  to  meet  him  for  the  pur- 
"  pose  of  fitting  up  an  office,  and  in  the  course  of  con- 
"  versation    he  asked   me   what  Church   I  went   to.     I 


SERMON.  2)7 


"  told  him  the  Tenth  Church,  and  that  it  was  then 
"without  a  Pastor.  He  inquired  whether  we  had  any 
"  one  in  view,  and  said  that  there  was  a  young  man  in 
"the  Seminary  at  Princeton,  a  Mr.  Boardman,  who,  he 
"  thought,  would  suit  us.  I  made  known  to  Mr,  John 
♦'Stille,  one  of  the  Elders,  what  Mr.  Alexander  had 
"  said.  He  and  Mr.  James  Kerr,  another  Elder,  went 
"  to  Princeton  the  next  day  to  confer  with  the  Pro- 
"  fessors,  and  to  invite  Mr.  Boardman  to  preach." 

This  invitation  Mr.  Boardman  accepted.  For  two 
Sundays,  one  in  July  and  the  other  in  August,  he 
"tried  his  gifts"  before  the  congregadon.  On  the 
second  day  of  September  he  received  a  hearty  and 
unanimous  call  to  become  the  Pastor.  He  was  made 
aware  of  the  feelings  of  the  congregation  several 
weeks  before  the  formal  call  was  given  him.  He  had 
"  many  misgivings."  He  took  them  to  his  Professors. 
He  took  them  to  his  God.  At  last  he  was  able  to  de- 
cide the  great  question,  and  to  write  to  the  committee 
of  the  congregation  his  letter  of  acceptance,  in  which 
he  says: — "After  much  serious  inquiry  and  delibera- 
"  tion,  I  have  concluded  to  accept  the  invitation  of  the 
"  Tenth  Presbyterian  Church  to  become  their  Pastor. 
"  I  have  earnestly  endeavored  to  seek  the  guiding  in- 
"  fluence  ot  the  Holy  Spirit  in  deciding  this  important 
"  quesdon  of  duty ;  but  time  only  can  determine  whether 


•  8  SERMON. 


"  the  call  of  the  Church  has  been,  in  the  present  case, 
*'  the  call  of  God.  No  considerations  could  have  in- 
"  duced  me  to  assume  the  weighty  responsibilities  of 
"  such  a  station  had  I  not  felt  that  those  who  had  invited 
"  me  to  occupy  it  would  engage  to  support  me  by  their 
"  constant  prayers.  Herein,  under  God,  are  all  my 
"  confidence  and  all  my  hope." 

The  Church  appeared  in  due  time  before  the  Pres- 
bytery to  ask  leave  to  prosecute  the  call;  and  the  Rev. 
Albert  Barnes  wrote  a  cordial  letter,  dated  "  in  Pres- 
bytery," to  the  pastor-elect.  Mr.  Boardman's  ordina- 
tion and  installation  took  place  on  the  8th  of  Novem- 
ber. Two  weeks  afterward  he  was  compelled  to  leave 
Philadelphia  for  a  visit  to  his  family.  On  this  journey 
he  became  ill;  and  thus,  at  the  very  beginning  of  his 
active  life,  laid  the  foundation  of  "the  precarious  health 
which  so  often  afterwards  interrupted  his  labors."  Dr. 
Boardman,  even  in  the  last  years  of  his  life,  did  not 
impress  one  as  an  old  man.  •  His  step  was  firm,  his 
form  was  erect,  his  walk  was  rapid  ;  and  when  excited, 
as  in  the  pulpit  he  was  wont  to  become  by  his  subject, 
his  voice  was  strong  and  resonant.  But  even  in  the 
early  days  of  his  ministry  he  was  far  from  robust,  and 
he  himself  tells  us  that  the  state  of  his  health  "  re- 
*'  peatedly  led  to  a  suspension  of  my  [his]  ministra- 
"  tions  for  weeks    and    months   together."     That   his 


SERMON.  39 


labors  were  thus  limited  in  many  directions,  I  have  no 
doubt.  That  laboring  under  this  enormous  disadvan- 
tage he  did  so  much,  as  a  preacher,  a  pastor,  an  au- 
thor, a  churchman,  and  in  the  various  positions  of 
trust  and  influence  to  which  he  was  invited  and  which 
he  consented  to  occupy,  justifies  the  wide  reputation 
he  enjoyed  as  a  man  of  fine  endowments  and  of  large 
attainments. 

The  young  Pastor,  while  still  weak,  returned  to  his 
labors.  On  these  he  entered  with  enthusiasm.  His 
congregation  increased  rapidly,  and  many  were  added 
to  his  Church.  Two  years  after  his  installation  he 
wrote  a  paper,  not  meant  for  other  eyes,  and  found 
only  after  his  death,  in  which  he  carefully  reviewed  his 
pastorate  up  to  that  time.  In  this  paper  he  refers  to 
the  many  fears  with  which  he  assumed  a  trust  of  so 
great  responsibility.  "  But,"  he  adds,  "it  has  pleased 
"  God  to  so  bless  the  relation  then  constituted  between 
"  this  people  and  mysfelf,  that  I  cannot  doubt  that  he 
"  called  me  to  this  station.  Among  the  more  striking 
"  indications  of  his  kindness  and  mercy  towards  me, 
"  during  the  period  above  mentioned,  I  may  mention 
"  the  following :  the  extraordinary  health  which,  until 
"  recendy,  I  have  enjoyed ;  the  general  good  health  of 
"my  family;  the  numerous  tokens  of  attachment  from 
"  the  people ;  the  exemption  of  the  congregation  from 


40  SERMON. 


"  prevailing  disease  ;  the  general  harmony  and  good 
*'  feeling  among  my  people  ;  the  great  increase  in  the 
"  size  of  the  congregation  ;  the  assurance  of  spiritual 
"  prosperity,  particularly  in  the  solemn  season  of  revi- 
"val,  1834-35;  the  additions  to  the  Church,  in  two 
"  years,  of  one  hundred  and  thirty-one  members,  the 
"  large  attendance  at  the  weekly  meetings ;  the  en- 
"  largement  of  the  Sunday  school,  and  the  increased 
"  contributions  to  religious  and  charitable  objects.  But 
"  these  mercies  have  not  been  unmingled  with  afflic- 
"  tions.  It  has  pleased  God  to  remove,  unexpectedly, 
"  our  child,  and  at  this  time  the  hand  of  chastisement  is 
"  on  me.  The  state  of  my  throat  has  prevented  me 
"  from  preaching  the  gospel,  with  the  exception  of  a 
"  single  sermon,  for  three  months.  God  has  com- 
"  manded  me  to  be  silent.  He  is  showing  me,  in  a 
"way  which  I  ought  to  understand,  that  He  does  not 
•'  need  my  services  in  the  accomplishment  of  His  work, 
"  and  that  I  have  need  of  a  more  subdued  and  chas- 
"  tened  spirit,  of  more  self  knowledge,  and  of  more  holi- 
"  ness  of  heart  and  life,  in  order  to  the  faithful  dis- 
"  charge  of  the  duties  of  my  sacred  office." 

I  select  his  own  account  of  his  pastorate  at  this  time 
just  because  I  wish  as  fully  as  possible  to  bring  the 
man  before  you  ;  but  there  are  not  a  few  whom  I  ad- 
dress who   remember,  and   there  are  many  more  who 


SERMON.  41 


remember  to  have  heard,  that  Mr.  Boardman,  from  the 
very  beginning  of  his  life  in  Philadelphia,  became  a 
man  of  note,  as  one  of  a  ministry  which  included  Albert 
Barnes,  of  his  own  Church  ;  George  W.  Bethune,  of 
the  Reformed  Dutch  Church;  John  Todd,  of  the  Con- 
gregational, and  Stephen  H.  Tyng,  of  the  Episcopal 
Communion. 

About  this  time  the  events  were  occurring  which 
led  to  the  disruption  in  1838.  Happily  that  chapter 
of  Church  history  was  concluded  ten  years  ago,  by  the 
reunion  of  the  two  bodies  into  which  the  conflict  of 
1838  divided  our  Church.  It  does  not  fall  within  the 
plan  of  this  sermon  to  recount  the  causes  or  the  inci- 
dents of  the  separation,  further  than  these  aid  in  ex- 
plaining Mr.  Boardman's  life.  All  of  us  know  how 
animated  the  discussions  of  that  day  were,  and  how 
bitter  was  the  strife.  Families  and  Churches  were  di- 
vided, and  the  friendships  of  many  years  were  broken. 
Philadelphia  was  the  centre  of  the  battle-field.  The 
Presbytery  to  which  this  Church  was  attached  had 
itself  but  a  precarious  hold  on  life.  The  congrega- 
tion to  which  Mr.  Boardman  ministered  was  composed 
of  men  and  women  who,  while  thoroughly  united  in 
love  for  their  Pastor,  were  far  from  united  on  the 
subjects  in  debate  between  the  Old  School  and  the 
New  School  parties.      Here,  in  those  days,  the  Gene- 


42  SERMON. 


ral  Assembly  was  accustomed  to  meet ;  and  few  sub- 
jects were  brought. before  it,  which  were  not  discussed 
in  reference  to  their  connection  with  the  all-including 
questions  of  Old  or  New  School.  Mr.  Barnes  and 
Dr.  Ely  on  one  side,  were  the  Pastors  of  the  First  and 
Third  Churches  ;  and  Dr.  Cuyler  and  Dr.  Engles,  on 
the  other,  were  Pastors  of  the  Second  and  Seventh 
Churches.  Here  Mr.  Barnes  wrote  and  published  his 
commentary  on  the  Epistles  to  the  Romans;  and  here 
he  was  summoned  before  his  Presbytery  for  trial. 
Here  the  General  Assembly  met  and  divided  in  1838. 
The  trial  before  Judge  Rogers,  which  terminated  in  a 
victory  for  the  Xew  School  party,  was  conducted  here  ; 
and  here  the  argument  before  the  Supreme  Court  was 
heard,  which  resulted  in  the  reversal  of  the  decision  of 
the  lower  Court,  and  in  giving  to  the  Old  School  party 
the  property  of  the  Trustees  of  the  General  Assembly. 
Of  these  events,  even  if  he  had  so  chosen,  Mr. 
Boardman  could  not  have  been  a  passive  spectator. 
In  those  days  no  Presbyterian  Pastor,  certainly  no 
Presbyterian  Pastor  living  in  Philadelphia,  could  hope 
to  stand  neutral  between  the  contending  forces.  Nor 
was  Mr.  Boardman  disposed  to  make  the  attempt. 
He  had  convictions,  and  as  he  always  had  the  courage 
of  conviction,  he  gave  his  influence  to  the  side  which 
he  believed  to  be  the  right  side.     He  did  lament,  and 


SERMON.  43 


lament  deeply,  that,  the  division  threw  brethren  apart, 
who  but  for  it,  would  have  walked  side  by  side  in  con- 
genial and  intimate  intercourse  ;  and  I  think  I  do  right 
in  saying,  that  having  known  him  well  during  the  last 
four  years  of  his  life,  I  know  that  he  yielded  to  none 
of  his  brethren,  in  respect  for  the  lofty  Christian  char- 
acter, and  in  gratitude  for  the  widely  useful  and  dis- 
tinguished career  of  Albert  Barnes. 

Too  young  to  be  one  of  the  leaders  in  the  conflict, 
he  was  a  profoundly  interested  spectator.  But  the 
two  Churches  had  hardly  begun  to  move  along  their 
separate  paths,  before  in  his  own  Church,  he  rose  to  a 
positian  of  prominence,  and  exerted  a  wide  influence. 
It  was  deemed  imperative  that  the  Church  of  which  he 
was  a  Pastor,  should  commend  itself  by  means  of  a 
distinctively  denominational  literature.  This  led  to 
efforts  to  enlarge  the  endowment  of  the  Presbyterian 
Board  of  Publication.  In  this  work  Mr.  Boardman 
took  a  prominent  part.  He  wrote  the  appeal  of  the 
Synod  to.  the  Churches,  and  raised,  in  his  own  congre- 
gation, the  largest  sum  contributed  by  any  Church  in 
the  connection.  This  was  only  the  beginning  of  a 
most  active  and  influential  ecclesiastical  career.  He 
was  often  on  his  feet  in  Presbytery,  Synod  and  Gene- 
ral Assembly.  He  was  always  listened  to  with  atten- 
tion, and  was    heard  with   delight  by  all,  save   those 


44 


SERMON. 


whom  he  opposed.    All  conceded  his  remarkable  pow- 
er in  debate.     The  calm  manner  and  the  quieter  kind 
of  proper  self-assertion  by  which  he  was  distinguished, 
harmonized  well  with  a  humor  that  was  never  broad, 
and    a    power  of  sarcasm  all    the  more  effective  be- 
cause it  was  so  seldom  brought. into  requisition,   and 
was  always  employed  with  seeming  unconsciousness. 
These,  with  the  weightier  qualities,  such  as  large  infor- 
mation, excellent  judgment,  an   ardent   love    for    his 
Church  and  a  Catholic  spirit,  rendered  him  an  antago- 
nist  not   to   be  despised.     These    rare  gifts  at  times 
made  him   mightier  than  the  sons  of  thunder;  and  to 
employ  the  old    illustration,  it  was  often    at    least   a 
question,  whether  the  heavy  broad-sword  of  the  King 
was  a  better  weapon   than   the  finely  tempered  scimi- 
tar of  the  Soldan.     The  influence  which  he  thus  came 
to  exert  in  the  Church  he  was  conscientious  in  using 
in  behalf  of  the  Church's  Christian  work.     The  Boards 
by    which    the    Church's    benevolence    is    distributed, 
found  him  a  faithful  and  laborious  friend.     .To  refer 
to   what   may  seem   a    small    matter,  I    recall  what  I 
suppose  all  before  me  have  remarked,  when  I  say,  that 
while  he  was  always  peculiarly  happy  in  making  all 
those  brief  announcements  which  most  clergymen  find 
exceedingly  difficult  to  render  effective,  he  was   most 
admirable  when  commending,  in  the  period  of  a   few 


SERMON.  42 


moments,  one  of  the  Church's  great  causes  to  his 
congregation.  These  notices  were  brief,  but  weighty 
and  effective  appeals. 

Thus  from  year  to  year  his  influence  grew  stronger 
and  wider.  He  became  well-known  and  highly  re- 
spected throughout  the  Presbyterian  Church.  Before 
he  had  reached  the  age  of  forty,  he  was  a  "leader"  in 
the  Church's  great  assemblies.  Soon  afterwards,  the 
General  Assembly  selected  him  to  fill  the  chair  of 
Pastoral  Theology  and  Church  Government,  at  Prince- 
ton ;  and  when  he  was  led  by  "the  earnest  remon- 
strances of  his  own  people;"  seconded  by  those  of  a 
large  number  of  the  leading  citizens  of  Philadelphia, 
to  decline  the  position  proffered  him,  the  Assembly 
made  him  Moderator.* 

*The  following  ediLorial  article  from  the  *'  North  American  and  United  States 
Gazette,^^  which  appeared  when  Dr.  Boardman  was  elected  rrofessor  at  Prince- 
ton, may  serve  to  show  the  feeling  in  Philadelphia  with  respect  to  his  proposed 
removal  from  the  City. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Boardman  and  the  Princeton  Professorship. — The  re- 
cent action  of  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Old  School  Presbyterian  Church,  in 
electing  the  Rev.  Dr.  Boardman  to  the  vacant  Professorship  in  the  Seminary  at 
Princeton,  has  produced  a  deep  sensation  in  this  community.  The  prospect  of 
parting  from  one  who,  as  a  pastor,  citizen  and  friend,  has  endeared  himself  to 
his  congregation  and  the  public  generally,  by  eminent  excellence  of  life  and  en- 
larged usefulness,  has  excited  imiversal  regret,  and  there  exists  a  very  strong 
wish  that  Dr.  B.  may  yet  find  it  consistent  with  his  deliberate  sense  of  duty  in 
the  case,  to  decline  the  appointment.  His  final  decision,  which  we  are  glad  to 
state,  upon  authority,  is  still  in  suspense,  will,  of  course,  depend  upon  the  convic- 


46  SERMON. 


From  this  point  onward  until  his  death,  his  life  was 
so  large,  and  his  labors  so  various,  that  the  story  re- 
fuses to  be  compressed  within  the  limits  of  a  sermon. 
Instead,  therefore,  of  stating  its  events  in  detail,  I  shall 
attempt  briefly  to  describe  the  man. 

The  remonstrances,  by  means  of  which  he  was  held 
in  this  pulpit,  were  the  result,  first,  of  his  fidelity  as 
pastor  of  this  Church,  and  secondly,  of  the  distinguished 
ability  which  he  revealed  as  a  preacher  of  the  gospel. 
In  protesting  against  his  removal,  his  ■  congregation 
were  able  to  refer  to  "  the  wide-spread  and  most  im- 
portant influence,"  which  he  had  acquired  in  this  com- 
munity, by  "  his  commanding  talents  as  a  preacher  and 
writer."  The  high  estimate,  to  which  his  Church  thus 
gave  expression,  received  an  emphatic   endorsement 

tion  he  may,  after  mature  consideration,  arrive  at  relative  to  his  ability  to  serve 
the  interests  of  the  Church  more  effectually  by  occupying  the  place  proposed, 
than  by  continuing  in  that  he  now  fills.  Great  as  is  the  sacrifice  of  personal 
preference  and  convenience  which  the  question  involves,  it  will,  we  are  satisfied, 
have  no  undue  weight  with  him  in  coming  to  the  conclusion  which  his  obliga- 
tions as  a  Minister  may  clearly  indicate  to  be  right.  Wherever  he  is  convinced  he 
can  be  most  useful  to  the  cause  of  that  religious  faith  and  society  to  -which  he 
has  dedicated,  with  such  exemplary  devotion,  his  great  talents  and  zeal,  there, 
undoubtedly,  he  will  go.  But  there  is  much  reason  to  hope  that,  in  the  painful 
and  perplexing  process  of  making  the  choice  which,  against,  his  earnest  depre- 
cation, has  been  forced  upon  Dr.  Boardman,  he  may  perceive,  in  the  eminently 
influential  relations  he  holds  to  this  community,  as  compared  with  the  character 
and  extent  of  the  service  he  could  render  in  the  new  field  to  which  he  is  in- 
vited, conclusive  motives  for  not  accepting  the  office  to  which  he  has  been  called. 


SERMON. 


47 


from  the  community  itself,  in  a  letter  addressed  to  him 
by  a  large  number  of  his  fellow-citizens,  not  members 
of  his  congregation — the  distinguished  name  of  Horace 
Binney  leading  the  signatures — in  which  the  writers 
say : — "  We  have  learned  to  recognize  in  you  not 
"  merely  the  Pastor  of  a  single  congregation,  but  the 
"  dignified  expounder  of  commercial  and  professional 
"  morals,  whose  teachings  and  whose  personal  charac- 
"  ter  are  of  public  importance.  We  feel  that  your  de- 
"parture  from  Philadelphia  would  be  a  loss  not  easily  v 
"  repaired  to  the  public  Christianity  of  a  great  commer- 
"  cial  metropolis."  It  was,  no  doubt.  Dr.  Boardman's 
faithfulness  and  ability  as  Pastor  of  a  conspicuous 
Church,  that  led  the  General  Assembly  to  elect  him 
to  the  chair  of  Pastoral  Theology  at  Princeton. 

We  are  requested  by  the  Chairman  of  the  Committee  appointed  to  wait  on 
the  Rev.  Dr.  Boardman  to  inform  him  of  his  election  to  the  Professorship  in  the 
Princeton  Seminary,  to  give  the  following  corrected  statement  of  Dr.  B's  reply ; 
and  we  publish  it  the  more  cheerfully,  because  we  know  how  much  gratification 
it  will  afford  many  who  were  led  by  an  imperfect  report  of  the  proceedings  of 
the  Assembly,  in  our  edition  of  yesterday,  to  believe  that  Dr.  Boardman  had  ac- 
cepted the  appointment  referred  to. 

"Dr.  Boardman  requested  the  Committee  to  convey  to  the  General ^ssembly 
"  his  grateful  sense  of  the  undeserved  honor  they  had  conferred  upon  him  and 
"the  confidence  reposed  in  him.  He  stated  that  both  his  nomination  and  his 
"  election  to  that  exalted  station  in  the  Church,  were  unsought  and  undesired  by 
••him;  and  that  it  would  have  been  an  unspeakable  relief  and  satisfaction  to  his 
"  mind,  if  the  Assembly  had  acceded  to  the  request  contained  in  his  letter  of  the 
"previous  day,  and  allowed  his  name  to  be  withdrawn.     He  observed  that  the 


48 


SERMON. 


He  was  above  all  a  preacher  of  the  gospel.  Look- 
ing back  over  his  ministry  of  forty  years,  he  says  that 
he  began  his  labors  here  with  the  conviction  that  "  the 
"  minister  of  Christ  must  assign  the  same  pre-eminence 
"  to  the  pulpit  which  the  New  Testament  accords  to  it." 
On  this  point  his  mind  never  wavered.  He  gave  far 
more  time  and  thought  to  his  preparation  for  preach- 
ing, than  to  pastoral  labor.  He  insisted  on  the  "  para- 
"  mount  claims  of  the  pulpit,  with  this  qualification,  viz.: 
"  that  even  the  pulpit  must  yield  to  the  demands  of  the 
"  sick,  the  desponding,  the  awakened,  and  the  be- 
"  reaved."  Thousfh  confessino-  that  as  he  reviewed  his 
career,  he  found  much  to  lament,  he  justifies  his  con- 
duct in  this  respect.  But  while  he  regarded  the  influ- 
ence of  pastoral  work,  in  the  narrower  sense  of  that 
phrase,  as  secondary  to  preaching,  he  was  faithful  to 
the  social  duties  of  his  office  ;  and  I  am  sure  that  the 
visits  of  no  clergyman   could  have   been  more  highly 

"  question  of  duty  now  presented  was  one  he  had  wished  and  tried  to  avoid,  and 
''which  it  was  very  painful  to  him  to  be  obliged  to  consider;  but  since  Provi- 
"  dence  had  brought  it  before  him,  he  would  examine  it  with  all  the  candor  and 
"  fidelity  he  could  bring  to  the  solution  of  it.  He  requested  the  committee  to 
"  say  to  the  Assembly,  however,  that  all  his  prepossessions,  all  his  wishes,  and, 
"  up  to  that  moment,  all  his  conviclious  of  duly,  were  adverse  to  the  proposed 
''  change  in  his  situation.  He  deeply  felt,  as  he  remarked  in  conclusion,  his 
'•  need  of  Divine  direction  in  this  important  juncture,  and  desired  the  Assembly, 
"  through  the  Committee,  to  invoke  in  his  behalf  the  guidance  of  the  Holy 
"Spirit." 


SERMON.  49 


valued  or  more  thoroughly  enjoyed  than  his  were  by 
the  families  of  his  congregation.  This  was  true  of  all 
his  visits  ;  but  especially  of  those  in  which  he  met  pa- 
rishioners, who,  perplexed  with  questions  of  duty,  or 
suffering  in  spiritual  despondency,  or  bowed  with  afflic- 
tion, sought  counsel  or  consolation  from  their  Pastor. 
His  tenderness,  his  sympathy,  his  profound  Christian 
experience,  his  wisdom  and  his  courtesy,  united  to 
make  his  visits  memorable.  At  such  times,  "  he  did 
"  not  attempt  to  bridge,  he  leaped  over  the  chasm 
"  between  secularlties  and  spiritualities."  What  mem- 
ories I  evoke  by  this  reference  to  Dr.  Boardman's 
pastoral  labors  !  With  what  grace,  as  representing, 
and  in  the  spirit  of  his  Master,  "  he  poured  the  oil  of 
consolation  into  the  wounded  bosom  !" 

But,  it  was  as  a  preacher  that  he  excelled.  The 
pulpit  was  the  place  of  his  power.  This  power  was 
the  result  of  exceptional  gifts,  both  of  mind  and  body, 
of  profound  conviction  of  the  truths  to  which  he  gave 
expression,  of  a  vivid  Christian  experience,  and  of  hard 
work.  Every  sermon  that  Dr.  Boardman  preached 
was  prepared  conscientiously,  with  great  pains.  He 
had  no  confidence  "  in  momentary  inspirations,"  or  in 
hasdly  written  productions.  He  was  well  aware  that 
power  in  the  pulpit  is  the  result  of  labor  in  the 
study.  I  have  been  permitted  to  read  the  prepara- 
4 


50  SERMON. 


tory  outlines  of  some  of  his  discourses  that  I  have 
heard  or  read ;  and  I  am  able  to  say  that  he  exhausted 
all  his  resources  to  preach  the  gospel  with  power;  and 
the  power  that  he  was  most  anxious  always  to  evince, 
was  that,  not  of  exciting  sensations,  but  of  producing 
impressions.  He  aroused,  not  the  passions,  but  the 
emotions.  If  the  sensibilities  were  ever  wrought  upon 
by  him,  that  was  by  no  means  his  aim.  For  in  the  ex- 
citement of  the  sensibilities,  man,  as  he  knew,  is  usu- 
ally passive.  He  reached  the  spiritual  emotions 
through  the  intellect;  and,  as  by  their  incitement,  man 
is  always  made  active,  he  reached  the  will.  This 
was  his  fundamental  method.  To  its  execution  he 
brought  a  noble  presence,  a  graceful  manner,  and  a 
voice  of  exquisite  quality  and  flexibility,  and  of 
power  more  than  equal  the  demands  of  the  house 
in  which  he  spoke.  Nor  was  this  all.  He  brought 
as  we  have  seen,  an  intellect  finely  endowed, 
broadly  cultivated  by  wide  reading,  and  carefully 
disciplined  by  earnest  study.  He  brought  also  an 
ardent  love  of  the  souls  whom  he  addressed  and  of 
the  Master  in  whose  name  he  addressed  them,  and  a 
conviction  of  the  supreme  importance  of  his  message, 
that  was  born  of  his  own.  experience.  But  all  this 
would  have  failed  to  make  him  the  great  preacher, 
which  I  do  not  hesitate  to  affirm   him  to  have  been. 


SERMON. 


51 


had  he  not  brought  the  truth;  the  Word  of  God.  I 
should  say  that  his  love  of  the  truth  was  a  more  dis- 
tinct, if  not  a  more  profound  emotion,  than  his  love  of 
men.  The  truth  was  not  only  the  substance  of  his 
preaching,  but  the  factor  which  gave  to  it  its  form. 
Thus  he  was  an  intellectual  rather  than  an  emotional 
preacher.  He  addressed  his  subject'  rather  than  his 
people.  His  published  sermons  are  far  more  ample 
in  their  discursive  than  in  their  hortatory  parts.  He 
explained  and  defended  the  truth ;  he  made  the  truth 
manifest  to  the  conscience  ;  and  for  most  part  left  to 
the  truth,  and  to  the  applying  Spirit,  the  work  of  ex- 
hortation and  appeal. 

Religious  truth  appealed  most  powerfully  to  himself 
when  formulated  as  doctrine.  In  this  form  he  preached 
it  to  his  people.  He  left  no  great  topic  in  theology 
undiscussed;  and  his  views  in  theology  were  in  har- 
mony with  the  symbols  of  his  Church.  Underlying 
every  sermon  was  that  great  system,  with  which  he 
was  more  familiar  than  most  preachers,  that  we  know 
as  the  theology  of  the  Reformed  Churches  ;  the  the- 
ology of  Augustine  and  Anselm,  of  Calvin  and  Knox, 
of  John  Owen  and  John  Howe,  of  Thomas  Chalmers 
and  Jonathan  Edwards.  This  theology  he  accepted 
rather  as  derived  from  the  word  of  God,  by  means  of 
exegetical  studies,  than  as  "grounded  in  the  absolute 


52  SERMON. 


principles  of  reason,"  with  which  God's  Word  is  ever 
accordant.  In  this  he  was  in  perfect  sympathy  with 
his  teacher,  Archibald  Alexander,  and  with  his  admired 
and  revered  friend,  Charles  Hodge.  Thus  he  was  led, 
far  oftener  to  emphasize  truth  as  revealed  to  man,  than 
as  the  food  his  spiritual  nature  demands.  His  preach- 
ing- was  objective;  and  it  had  all  the  power  that  be- 
longs to  that  method  of  declaring  Christian  truth. 
There  were  few  subjects  appropriate  to  the  pulpit  that 
in  his  sermons  he  failed  to  touch;  and  every  subject 
he  touched  he  grasped  with  real  power.  Thus,  for  be- 
tween forty  and  hfty  years,  he  preached  from  his  pulpit. 
If  I  have  been  able  to  set  forth  his  method  and  spirit 
as  a  preacher  and  to  describe  his  gifts,  and  have  cor- 
rectly stated  the  form  and  substance  of  his  preaching, 
we  need  not  be  astonished  that  he  was  revered  by  his 
congregation,  respected  and  admired  by  his  City,  and 
honored  by  his  Church.  But  eternity  alone  will  reveal 
the  incalculable  blessings  which  all  derived  from  his 
talents  and  learning,  consecrated  as  they  were  to  the 
single  purpose,  and  employed  in  its  fulfillment  for  al- 
most a  half  century,  of  declaring  to  men  "the  gospel 
of  the  Son  of  God." 

The  influence  which  he  exerted  by  preaching  from 
this  pulpit  was  largely  increased  by  his  published 
writings.     I  have  already  spoken  of  the  "literary  fla- 


SERMON.  23 


vor  '*  by  which  all  his  published  writings  are  per- 
vaded. It  is  not  by  any  means  so  hard  to  invest  the 
subjects  usually  selected  by  belles  lett7'-es  writers  with 
literary  charms,  as  it  is  thus  to  adorn  discussions  in 
theology  or  sermons  on  religion.  Sermons,  especi- 
ally, have  usually  finer  oratorical  than  literary  traits. 
They  require  the  presence  of  the  preacher  to  give 
them  interest,  and  they  lose  their  power  when  subject- 
ed to  the  ordeal  of  publication.  Your  Pastor's  ser- 
mons were,  in  this  respect,  exceptional  productions. 
The  reputation  that  he  made  in  the  pulpit  never  suf- 
fered when  his  sermons  appeared  in  print.  The  more 
he  published,  the  more  widely  and  more  highly  was  he 
esteemed.*     The  time  at  my  disposal  does  not  permit 

The  titles  of  Dr.  Boardman's  printed  and  published  writings  are  the  follow- 
ing :— 

I.— PAMPHLETS. 

"  The  Almost  Christian." 

1833. 

Sermon    before  the    Young  Men's  Society  of  Philadelphia.     (Three    months 

after  his  ordination.) 

1834. 

"  Letter  from  a  Pastor    to    the   Female    Bible   Classes  connected   with    his 

charge." 

1835- 

"Vanity  of  a  Life  of  Fashionable  Pleasure." 

1839. 

"  Correspondence  between  Bishop  Doane  and  Rev.  Dr.  Boardman." 


54  SERMON. 


me  even  to  name  his  volumes.  None  of  them  fell  flat 
from  the  press  ;  all  of  them  were  useful ;  many  of  them 
were  widely  circulated ;  and  two  or  three  are  likely  to 
have  a  longer  life  of  wide  and  active  usefulness  than 
most  of  us.  It  is  not  often  that  one  is  able  to  make  a 
statement  like  this  concerning  the  Pastor  of  a  large 
Church  in  a  busy  city ;  for  while  the  duties  of  his  posi- 


"  Sermon  on  the  death  of  President  Harrison." 

1841. 

Address — "  American  Protestant  Association." 

1843. 

"  Sermon  to  Medical  Men." 

"  Lecture  on  the  Apostolical  Succession." 

1844. 

"Address  before  sailing  for  Europe. — April  nth,  1847." 

"  Pastoral  Letter. — Venice,  Dec.   15th,  1847." 

"  Sermon  to  the  Legal  Profession  on  Charles  Chauncey." 

1849. 

"  Sermon  on  Rev.  Dr.  Miller." 

•'  A  Plea  for  Sunday  Afternoon." 

1850. 

"  Suggestions  to  Young  Men  in  Mercantile  Business." 

"The  American  Union." 

1851. 

"  Kossuth  or  Washington." 

"Daniel  Webster." 

1852. 

"  The  Low  Value  set  upon  Human  Life  in  the  United  States.' 
1853- 


SERMON. 


55 


tion  afford  him  every  good  sort  of  stimulus  to  literary 
labor,  his  many  and  exacting  engagements  leave  him 
no  time  for  literary  revision.  That  Dr.  Boardman  did 
so  much  so  well,  justifies  the  statement  that  had  his 
life  been  distinctively  a  literary  life,  his  name  would 
have  been  both  long  remembered  and  widely  and  fa- 
vorably known. 

"  Sermon  on  the  Burlington  Catastrophe." 
*'  Merchants'  Fund  Address." 
"  Boardman  on  the  Ministry." 

1855- 

"  Sermon  on  the  Death  of  George  M.  Ramsaur."     (A  medical  student.) 

"  Moral  Courage." 

1856. 

"  The  Two  Sacraments." 

1857- 

"  Not   '  This    m-   That,'    but  '  This   and  That.'  " 

♦•  Going  to  the  Opera." 

1858. 

"  The  Dignity  and  Importance  of  the  Christian  Ministry." 

"Christian  Union." 

1859. 

"  The  Union." 

"  Sermon  on  The  Present  Crisis." 

"  In  Memoriam,  Rev.  Dr.  Van  Rensselaer." 

i860. 

"  Thanksgiving  in  War." 

1861. 

"  The  Lord  Reigneth." 

"  The  Judiciary." 

1862. 


56  SERMON. 


That  a  clergyman  of  his  talents  and  learning  and 
character,  occupying  a  conspicuous  pulpit  for  many 
years,  should  become  a  well  known  and  influential  citi- 
zen was  to  be  expected.  I  think  I  may  say,  that  no 
clergyman  who  ever  lived  in  Philadelphia  enjoyed  a 
larger  measure  than  did  Dr.  Boardman  of  the  respect 
and  good-will  of  his  fellow-citizens.     Many  of  the  most 

"  Thanksgiving  Sermon." 

1864. 

"  The  Peace  Makers." 

"  The  Faithful  Servant  Crowned," 

"  Margaret  Latimer." 

"  The  Peace  We  Need." 

1865. 

"  The  State  of  the  Church." 

«  Dr.  William  Shippen." 

"  The  One  Thing  Needful." 

"  Singleton  A.  Mercer." 

1867. 

"  Pastoral  Letter,  from  St.  Paul,  on  the  text,'  Hitherto  hath  the  Lord  helped  us.'  " 

1869. 
"Dedication  H.  H.  Memorial  Chapel." 

1874. 

"  A  Pastor's  New  Year's  Gift  to  his  people." 

1876. 

"In  Memoriam,  Prof.  John  S.  Hart." 

1S78. 
"  In  Memoriam,  Rev.  Dr.  Hodge." 

1879. 

"  Come  Unto  Me." 

1880. 


■SERMON.  57 


distinguished  of  them  most  highly  esteemed  the  man, 
cultivated  his  acquaintance,  and  sought  his  society. 
Of  these,  all  were  glad  that  no  invitadon,  however 
pressed,  sufficed  to  move  him  from  Philadelphia.  His 
fine  career  was  often  the  theme  of  Interested  conver- 
sation among  men  not  of  his   own    profession  or  be- 

II.— BOUND  VOLUMES. 

"  Pastors'   Counsels." 

1835- 

"  Apostolical   Succession." 

"  Original  Sin." 

"  Romanism." 

1844. 

"  Hints  on  Temper." 

1845. 

"  Bible  in  the  Family." 

1851. 

"Bible  in  the  Counting  House." 

1853- 

"  Election." 

i860. 

"The  Great  Question." 

"  Memorial  of  Harriet  Holland." 

1871. 

"  Twenty-Fifth  and  Fortieth  Anniversary  Sermons." 

1873- 

''  The  Higher  Life  Doctrine  of  Sanctification." 

1877. 

"  Earthly  Suffering  and  Heavenly  Glory." 

1878. 


58 


SERMON. 


longing  to  his  own  communion.  Only  the  other  day 
I  had  the  pleasure  of  reading  a  charming  letter,  written 
to  your  Pastor  by  the  honorable  and  venerable  Hor- 
ace Binney,  a  letter  which  I  regret  I  cannot  repeat, 
and  which  the  writer,  then  in  his  ninety-third  year, 
penned  just  after  reading  Dr.  Boardman's  fortieth  an- 
niversary sermon.*  It  is  but  one  of  many  that  he  re- 
ceived in  middle  and  in  later  life,  from  men  whose  es- 
teem and  friendship  were  themselves  a  eulogy. 
Dr.  Boardman's  mind   traveled  largely    outside   of 

*In  the  letter  referred  to,  Mr.  Binney  writes,  Dec.  i8,  1873  :  —  *  -x-  * 
"Since  I  have  read  the  sermon  on  your  fortieth  anniversary  [every  word  of  it, 
"  and  l)y  the  light  of  a  students'  lamp  last  evening,  and  my  eyes  are  none  the 
"worse  for  it  this  morning,)  I  feel  that  I  am  doubly  the  richer  for  it,  though  I 
"  have  contracted  an  equal  amount  of  debt  which  I  can  never  repay.  *  *  * 
"  The  mere  retrospect  in  which  I  could  almost  travel  with  you  the  whole  way, 
"  (and  a  little  more  than  the  whole  way,)  would  have  been  more  refreshment 
"  than  I  have  received  in  this  kind,  for  many  a  day ;  but  this  was  quite  secondary 
"by  the  side  of  the  pure  and  sound  Gospel  doctrine, — the  deep  feeling  of  pasto- 
"  ral  duty,  faithfully  but  not  boastingly  performed, — the  just  and  heartfelt  enco- 
"  mium  upon  your  large  flock  ;  your  searching  cautions  ;  your  sincere  encourage- 
"ments;  your  wise  criticisms  in  dispraise  as  well  as  praise  of  dress,  music,  Sun- 
"  day  School,  family  religion  and  intercourse  ;  your  catholic  good  will  to  all  with 
"  whom  church  worship  is  not  an  imposture;  the  sincere,  honest,  conscientious, 
"  brave  spirit  in  which  all  is  delivered ;  and  finally  the  prophetical  forecast  of 
"some  of  its  remarks,  all  found  me  in  constant  sympathy  and  concurrence  with 
"  you  from  beginning  to  end.  I  say  this  to  my  own  praise ;  and  heartily 
"  thank  God  for  giving,  and  still  leaving,  to  me,  to  this  the  approaching  close  of 
'<  my  ninety-third  year,  a  heart  which  warms  at  the  manifestation  of  so  noble  a 
*'  spirit  in  the  service  of  his  Divine  Lord  and  Master." 


SERMON.  59 


the  circle   of  theological   studies.     He   was  a  man  of 
wide   readine  and   of  varied  information.     He  could 
not  only  follow,  but  could  intelligently  take    part  in 
conversation  with  a  specialist,  in  any  one  of  many  and 
widely  separate  departments  of  learning.     He  loved 
books,  as  all  who  have  seen  his  study  know.     Though 
familiar  with  it,  I  have  the  impression  that  he  did  not 
greatly  admire  the  current  belles  lettres  literature.     He 
read  with  profound   admiration  and    delight  the   au- 
thors of  the   age  of  Elizabeth,  and  he   had  almost   a 
commentator's  knowledge  of  the  poets  and  moralists 
of  the  reiofn  of  Oueen  Anne.     To  this  love  of  litera- 
ture   he  united  a  fine  taste,  which  appeared  in  every- 
thing he   wrote.     The   neatness  and  elegance  of  his 
composition,  and  the  entire  absence  of  those  little  faults 
which  made  a  learned   clerg^^man,  who  undertook  a 
few  years  since  to  teach  "  the  Queen's  English,"  the 
victim  of  his  critic,  may  well  be  mentioned  here;  for 
the  virtue,  though  negative,  is  unusual  and  difficult  of 
attainment.     This    virtue  was    but   one    exhibition  of 
that  delicate  sense  of  propriety  vv^hich  was  revealed  in 
many  ways.     It  was  this  trait  that  led  to  his  selection 
to  deliver  the  address  of  welcome  to  the  representa- 
tives of  the  Reformed  Churches  of  the  world.     The 
single  paragraph  written  by  him  may  serve  to  show 


6o  SERMON. 


how  clearly  the  completed  address  would  have  justi- 
fied this  selection. '=' 

I  do  not  think  that  Dr.  Boardman  ever  discovered 
any  special  fondness  for  metaphysical  studies.  He 
reached  his  theological  conclusions  by  means  of  exe- 
gesis, not  by  means  of  philosophy.  His  early  reading 
led  him  into  the  domain  of  jurisprudence.  In  this 
science  he  was  always  deeply  interested,  as  he  was  also 
In  the  related  department  of  politics.  Some  of  his 
ablest  addresses  are  on  subjects  that  arrange  them- 
selves under  the  latter  title.  On  all  of  these  themes 
he  held  opinions,  which  he  set  forth  with  clearness  and 
precision,  illustrated  with  real  learning,  and  defended 
with  ability.     Sometimes   his  views  were  opposed  to 

*" Brethren  beloved  in  Christ  Jesus: — I  am  charged  with  the  grateful 
"  office  of  bidding  you  welcome  to  our  countrj'  and  our  City,  our  Churches  and 
•'  our  homes. 

"  First  of  all,  our  grateful  acknowledgments  are  due  to  that  benign  Provi- 
"  dence  which  has  watched  over  you  on  the  land  and  on  the  sea,  shielded  you 
"  from  the  perils  of  traveling,  and  brought  you  to  us  in  this  goodly  convocation, 
"as  we  humbly  trust,  in  the  fullness  of  the  blessing  of  the  gospel  of  Christ  The 
"  occasion  is  one  which  turns  back  the  shadows  upon  the  great  dial,  not  fifteen 
•'  degrees,  but  three  and  a  half  centuries.  Luther  and  Zwingle,  Calvin  and 
"  Knox,  and  their  illustrious  compeers,  stand  before  us,  God's  appointed  instru- 
"  ments  for  publishing  to  an  enslaved  continent  this  mandate  :  Come  out  of  her, 
"  my  people,  that  ye  be  not  partakers  of  her  sins,  and  that  ye  receive  not  of  her 
"  plagues.  They  heard  and  obeyed  the  summons.  Breaking  away  from  the 
"  ancient  thralldom,  their  first  recourse  was  to  that  inspired  Book  which  had  for 
"  ages  been  withheld  from  them.     Searching  the  Scriptures  with  patient  study, 


SERMON.  •  6 1 


those  of  a  majority  of  his  fellow  citizens.  But  Dr. 
Boardman  was  always  courageous,  and  had  far  more 
respect  for  truth  than  for  a  majority.  Many  here  may 
remember  the  enthusiasm  with  which  Louis  Kossuth 
was  welcomed  twenty-eight  years  since  by  the  Ameri- 
can people.  The  heartiness  of  this  welcome  was  due 
partly  to  the  man's  fervid  eloquence,  and  partly  to 
Mr.  Webster's  letter  to  Baron  Hulseman,  written  two 
years  before.  Such  was  the  sympathy  of  our  people 
with  Kossuth  and  Hungary,  that  it  required  no  ordi- 
nary courage  for  one  to  rise  and  ask  the  question, 
"  whither  is  all  this  leading  us  ?"  This  Dr.  Boardman 
did.  In  an  able  address,  in  which  his  wide  political 
readinor  reveals  itself,  he  warns  his  fellow  citizens  not 

'•  and  earnest  prayer,  they  found  there  neither  Pope  nor  prelate,  but  a  permanent 
"  ministry  of  co-equal  rank  and  authority,  and  that  scheme  of  doctrine  which 
"  constitutes  the  life  and  core  of  the  evangelical  theology.  It  is  a  pregnant  fact 
"  that  nearly  all  the  churches  of  the  Reformation  assumed,  and  preserve  to  this 
"day,  a  Presbyterian  organization.  In  Germany,  in  Switzerland,  in  the  Nether- 
"  lands,  in  Scotland,  in  Italy,  in  France,  they  adopted  with  one  accord,  and  still 
"  retain,  the  primitive  Scriptural  order,  which  the  Waldensian  Church,  '  neither 
"Protestant  nor  Reformed,'  had  maintained  inviolate  for  centuries  amidst  the 
"fastnesses  of  the  High  Alps.  Even  those  churches  which  retained  the  pre- 
"latic  element,  retained  it,  with  a  single  exception,  not  as  of  imperative  divine 
"  obligation,  but  purely  on  grounds  of  expediency,  their  Bishops  being  simply 
"priiiii  inter  pares,  not  of  a  superior  order  to  Pi-esliyters.  And  it  is  safe  to  say 
"that  England  also  would  have  taken  this  ground,  had  not  the  iron  hand  of 
"  the  crown  laid  an  arrest  upon  the  beneficent  work  of  her  faithful  and  shackled 
"  reformers." 


62  -  SERMON. 


to  be  seduced  into  demanding  a  departure  from  the 
conservative  policy  of  non-intervention,  which  the 
fathers  of  the  Repubhc  had  made  the  policy  of  the  gov- 
ernment. 

Dr.  Boardman  was  an  ardent  patriot ;  and  in  two 
addresses,  one  of  them  on  Daniel  Webster,  he  gave 
eloquent  expression  to  his  theory  of  our  government, 
and  his  attachment  to  the  Federal  Union.  That  theory 
was  the  view  which  Mr.  Webster  announced  in  his  re- 
ply to  Mr.  Hayne,  and  which,  three  years  later,  he  de- 
fended in  his  more  able,  but  less  widely  known  argu- 
ment, called  out  by  the  Resolutions  of  Mr.  Calhoun. 
Intelligently  accepting  Mr.  Webster's  view  of  the 
powers  of  the  Federal  Government,  and  of  its  relations 
to  the  States,  Dr.  Boardman,  during  the  late  Civil  War, 
was  thoroughly  in  sympathy  with  its  object,  and  heartily 
rejoiced  in  the  final  victory,  by  which  the  authority  of 
the  general  government  was  maintained  throughout 
the  land.  But  he  mourned  the  inevitable  desolations 
of  the  war,  and  he  disagreed  with  not  a  few  of  his 
warmest  friends  in  his  view  of  some  of  the  details  of 
its  prosecution.  Differences  of  opinion  on  political 
questions  more  easily  separated  friends  in  those  days, 
than,  happily,  they  do  to-day.  It  was  inevitable  that 
Dr.  Boardman  should  feel  deeply  the  distance  wliich 
these  differences  of  opinion  placed  between  himself  and 


SERMON. 


63 


many  of  his  friends.  But  he  would  not  have  been  the 
lofty  man  who  commanded  your  respect  and  won 
your  confidence  and  engaged  your  affections,  had  he 
adopted  views  because  he  supposed  them  popular. 
Whatever  faults  he  had  this  certainly  was  not  one  of 
them.     He  was  nothing,  if  not  morally  brave. 

Dr.  Boardman's  interest  in  the  well-beine  of  his  fel- 
low  men  revealed  itself  in  his  intellieent  efforts  to 
widen  the  usefulness  of  many  of  the  charitable  institu- 
tions which  honor  our  City.  With  one  of  these,  the 
Deaf  and  Dumb  Institution,  he  was  closely  connected  ; 
but  he  was  also,  as  far  as  possible,  actively  interested 
in  every  form  of  benevolence.  I  happen  to  know  that 
he  thought  much,  and  read  widely,  on  this  great  sub- 
ject. The  question,  whether  the  Churches  of  the 
Reformation  have  not  employed  themselves  too  ex- 
clusively with  spiritual  subjects,  and  whether  they 
should  not,  besides  stimulating  benevolent  activity, 
conduct  benevolent  institutions,  he  pondered  deeply. 
He  so  far  answered  it,  as  heartily  to  rejoice  in  the 
founding  in  our  City,  and  in  connection  with  our  own 
Church,  of  the  Home,  the  Orphanage  and  the  Hospital. 

Of  course,  I  have  left  unsaid  many  things  that  I 
should  have  been  glad  to  say,  and  that  you  would 
have  been  glad  to  hear  ;  and  in  what  I  have  said  I 
have  tried  hard  to  refrain  from  the  language  of  mere 


64  SERMON. 


compliment.  We  may  not,  of  course,  invade  the 
Cliristian  home  of  which  he  was  the  beloved  and  re- 
served head.  I  have  been  able  only  to  present  an 
outline  of  his  more  public  career,  as  a  Christian  man 
and  Pastor;  and  without  attempting  to  catalogue  the 
elements  of  his  powder,  to  let  the  picture  make  its  own 
impression  upon  you. 

But  I  should  be  unjust  both  to  his  memory  and  to 
my  own  feelings,  if  I  failed  to  give  expression  to  my 
profound  gratitude  that,  in  the  providence  of  God,  I 
was  permitted  to  be  associated  in  labor  with  so  noble 
and  able  a  Minister  of  the  Gospel.  He  cordially  wel- 
comed me  to  the  pulpit  which  his  distinguished  pastor- 
ate had  made  eminent.  He  was  untirino-  in  his  en- 
deavors  to  make  his  friends  my  friends.  His  mature 
wisdom  was  at  my  disposal,  but  only  as  I  sought  it; 
and  he  was  only  .too  fearful  lest,  by  expressing  his 
opinions,  he  might  seem  to  proffer  advice.  Whatever 
service  I  asked  of  him  he  rendered  joyfully,  I  may 
almost  say,  gratefully.  He  resigned  his  authority  as 
Pastor  of  this  Church,  just  before  I  was  called;  but 
though  he  resigned  his  authority,  his  influence  he  could 
not  resign. =^=     Thus   he  remained  among  you,  visiting 

*.MlNUTE   ADOPTED    BY  THE    PRESBYTERY,  MaY  25,   1 876,  OX  THE  RESIGNATION 

OF  Dr.  Eoardman. 
Whereas,  in  the  providence  of  GoJ  we  are  called  upon  to  dissolve  the  paste- 


SERMON.  65 


the  sick,  preaching  from  time  to  time,  often  with  a 
power  that  recalled  the  days  of  his  vigorous  manhood  ; 
the  Pastor  of  this  Omrch,  until  God  called  him  home. 
He  died  on  the  fifteenth  day  of  last  June.  His  ill- 
ness was  brief  and  his  death  unexpected.  The  last 
time  I  saw  him,  I  saw  him  in  this  Church.  The  niece 
of  one  of  the  Elders  who  had  welcomed  him  to  Phila- 
delphia had  died,  and  the  funeral  services,  held  in  the 
Church,  had  begun,  when  he  entered  the  door  and 
walked  to  the  pulpit.  He  had  come  from  Adantic 
City  to  be  present  at  the  burial  of  his  intimate  and 
valued    friend.      He    spoke    briefly   of    her    beaudful 

ral  relation  which  has  existed  for  forty-three  years  between  the  Rev.  Dr.  Henry 
A.  Boardman  and  the  Tenth  Presbyterian  Church  of  this  City,  we  recognize  it  as 
a  manifest  duty  and  a  grateful  privilege  to  place  upon  record  a  statement  of  our 
views  and  feelings  in  the  performance  of  this  Presbyterial  act. 

The  pastoral  relation  now  dissolved  has  been  one  of  unusual  interest  and  im- 
portance in  the  history  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  this  City.  At  the  time 
when  it  was  formed  the  Pastor  was  a  young  man  fresh  from  the  Seminary,  and 
the  Church  was  but  in  its  fourth  year;  so  that  whatever  the  Tenth  Church  has 
been  in  its  position  among  the  Churches,  has  been  owing  in  great  measure,  un- 
der God,  to  the  valuable  ministiy  by  which  it  has  been  served  dm-ing  this  pastor- 
ate. 

And  now  that,  by  reason  of  failing   health,  our  esteemed  and  beloved  brother 

has  been  constrained  to  request  that  this  important  charge  be  laid  aside,  we  feel 
that  we  cannot  withhold  the  expression  of  our  hearty  appreciation  of  the  good 
work  that  God  has  enabled  him  to  accomplish,  for  the  general  advancement  of 
religion  in  our  City,  and  for  the  glory  of  the  Redeemer.  We  call  to  mind  the 
vigorous  ability  with  which  he  has  vindicated  the  principles  of  our  holy  religion, 
and  defended  the  doctrine  and  polity  of  the   Presbyterian  Church,  not  only  in 

5 


66  SERMON. 


Christian  character,  and  then,  with  great  tenderness, 
of  "our  Father's  house  of  many  mansions,"  and  led  us 
in  prayer.  Two  weeks  later  he  finished  his  earthly 
life,  and  was  admitted  to  "  our  Father's  house  " — "  the 
house  not  made  with  hands,  eternal  in  the  heavens." 

Many  and  solemn  are  the  lessons  which  this  recital 
should  teach  us.  If  I  omit  to  state  them,  it  is  be- 
cause they  are  so  obvious  as  to  require  no  statement. 
Let  me  say  only,  that  it  is  not  enough  that  you  sincere- 
ly mourn  that  you  will  see  his  face  no  more.  It  is  not 
enough  that  you  cherish  his  memory,  and  eulogize  his 
"  ten  talents,"  and  revere  his  exalted  Christian  charac- 

his  able  and  eloquent  discourses  from  the  pulpit,  but  also  in  his  numerous  publi- 
cations ;  and  for  many  years  we  have  recognized  him  as  a  most  able  and  influen- 
tial representative  of  the  Presbyterian  ministry  in  this  particular  community,  and 
before  the  church  at  large.  It  gives  us  pleasure  to  record  the  profound  respect 
which  we  have  long  cherished  for  the  gifts  and  graces  with  which  God  has  en- 
dowed him,  fitting  him  to  fill  with  such  eminent  ability  and  success  the  office  of 
the  Christian  ministry;  while  we  bear  most  cordial  testimony  to  his  uniform  ex- 
cellence and  fidelity  as  a  Presbyter,  standing  in  his  lot  among  us  at  all  times  as 
full  of  wisdom  and  sound  judgment,  and  giving  his  efficient  co-operation  to  every 
right  enterprise  for  the  building  up  of  our  Church  in  this  great  city,  and  for  the 
establishment  of  Christ's  kingdom  in  all  the  earth. 

And,  although  the  pastoral  relation  in  which  he  has  accomplished  the  great 
work  of  his  life  is  dissolved,  we  are  happy  to  know,  as  his  co-presbyters,  that  he 
is  still  lo  remain  among  us,  and  that  we  are  to  continue  to  enjoy  the  benefit  of  his 
counsels  and  prayers.  And  we  assure  him  that,  as  he  has  found  a  congenial 
home  among  the  people  of  his  charge  so  many  years,  so,  likewise,  he  may  be 
confident  that  he  holds  a  warm  place  in  the  affectionate  respect  of  his  brethren  in 


SERMON.  67 


ter.  To  have  heard  the  gospel  from  his  lips  is  a 
privilege,  indeed ;  but  it  is  a  privilege  that  immeas- 
urably increases  your  responsibility  to  God.  If  you 
are  not  Christians,  it  is  clear  that  your  failure  to  be- 
come Christians  has  not  been  due  to  his  lack  either  of 
ability  or  of  fidelity.  I  have  tried  to  tell  the  story  and 
describe  the  quality  of  his  ministry.  It  now  becomes 
the  duty  of  each  one  of  you  to  ask  the  question,  "  What 
was  that  ministry  to  me?  " 

You  know  only  too  well  what  he  longed  and  prayed 
and  studied  and  preached,  that  his  ministry  might  be 
to  every  one   of  you.     The  last  words  on   the   tablet 

the  Presbytery ;  that  we  shall  regard  it  a  pleasure  still  to  hear  his  words  of  good 
judgment,  while  our  fervent  prayer  to  the  Great  Head  of  the  Church  shall  be 
that  it  may  please  Him  to  continue  His  servant  with  us  for  many  years  to  come, 
as  a  helper  in  the  work  of  the  Kingdom,  and  a  model  to  all  who  are  laboring  for 
the  Master. 

We  desire,  moreover,  to  express  our  gratification  in  view  of  the  graceful  tri- 
bute given  by  the  Tenth  Church  to  their  retiring  pastor  in  their  request  that  he  will 
accept  the  title  of  Pastor  Emeritus,  and  as  in  their  formal  action  they  desire  that 
the  Presbytery  will  grant  him  this  appropriate  title,  we  do  most  heartily  accede  to 
this  request,  and  commend  them  for  the  beautiful  affection  which  has  prompted  it. 
And  we  cherish  the  desire  that  they  may  continue  to  hold  in  their  loving  memory 
the  able  and  faithful  ministry  with  which  they  have  been  served,  until  that  day 
when  the  chief  Shepherd  shall  appear  and  give  His  servant  "  a  crown  of  glory 
that  fadeth  not  away." 

Resolved:— TiKTA.  the  Stated  Clerk  be  directed  to  attach  to  the  name  of  Dr. 
Boardman  on  the  Presbyterial  roll  the  title  of  Pastor  Emeritus  which  the  Church 
has  requested  to  have  bestowed  upon  him. 


SERMON. 


which  you  have  placed  in  this  Church  to  his  memory 
are  : — "  He,  being  dead,  yet  speaketh,"'''  Certainly,  his 
words — not  mine — may  most  fittingly  close  this  memo- 
rial sermon.f  "  What,  then," — he  asked  at  the  close  of 
his  more  active  ministr}',  after  he  had  preached  from 
this  pulpit  for  forty  years, — "What,  then,  are  the  les- 
'  sons  of  this  anniversary  for  you  and  for  me  ?  We  are 
'all  passing  away.  In  the  nature  of  things,  I  cannot  ex- 
'  pect  my  ministry  to  be  prolonged  for  many  years.  It 
'  may  terminate  at  any  moment — yes,  and  any  Sabbath 
'may  see  some  of  your  seats  vacant.  Are  we  ready 
'  for  the  summons  ?  Have  we  fled  to  Christ  ?  Are 
'we  sprinkled  with  His  blood?  Are  we  clothed  with 
'  His  righteousness?  Are  we  imbued  with  His  spirit? 
'  Are  our  loins  girded  and  our  lamps  trimmed,  as  those 
'  who  wait  for  the  coming  of  their  Lord  ? 

*The  inscription  on  the  Mural  Tablet,  placed  above  the  pulpit  of  the  Tenth 
Church,  in  memory  of  Dr.  Boardman,  is  as  follows  : — _ 

Henry  Augustus  Boardman,  D.  D., 

Born  Januaiy  9,  180S. — Pastor  of  this  Church,  from  his  ordination,  November  8 
1833,  until  his  death,  June  15,  iSSo.-r-A  servant  of  God,  and  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ.  James  I.,  i. — Well  done,  thou  good  and  faithful  servant,  enter  thou 
into  the  joy  of  thy  Lord.  Matthew  XXV.,  21. — He,  being  dead,  yet  speak- 
eth. 

f  The  following  Resolution  has  been  passed  by  the  Session  of  the  Tenth 
Presbyterian  Church  : — '■^Resolved: — That  the  Sermon  delivered  by  the  Pastor, 
"  commemorative  of  the  life  and  labors  of  the  former  Pastor,  the  Rev.  Henry 
*' A.  Boardman,  D.  D.,  be  engrossed  on  the  Minute  Book  of  the  Session." 


SERMON.  69 


"  My  dear  people,  bound  to  my  heart  by  so  many 
"  sacred  ties:  on  that  day  when  the  ransomed  shall  be 
"  gathered  at  the  right  hand  of  Christ,  I  would  that  not 
"  one  of  you  should  be  wanting.  And  I  close  up  the 
'•  record  of  these  forty  years  with  the  lervent  prayer 
"to  'the  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  of  whom 
*'  '  the  whole  family  in  heaven  and  earth  is  named,  that 
"  '  He  would  grant  you  according  to  the  riches  of  His 
"'glory,  to  be  strengthened  with  might  by  His  Spirit 
"'in  the  inner  man;  that  Christ  may  dwell  in  your 
"  '  hearts  by  faith  ;  that  ye,  being  rooted  and  grounded 
"  '  in  love,  may  be  able  to  comprehend  with  all  saints 
'* '  what  is  the  breadth  and  length,  and  depth,  and 
" '  height ;  and  to  know  the  love  of  Christ,  which 
"  *  passeth  knowledge,  that  ye  might  be  filled  with  all 
"  '  the  fullness  of  God.'  " 


DATE  DUE 

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{  PHOTOMOUNT 

•  PAMPHLET  BINDER 


1     Manufocturod  by 
iGAYLORD  BROS.  Inc. 
I      Syracuse,  N.Y. 
StocKton,  Calif. 


